Health Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr.
plans to announce a new nationwide competition for schools aimed at expanding participation in the Presidential Fitness Test, which President Donald Trump revived last year.The challenge will offer $7 million in prizes to schools, districts and youth organizations that demonstrate effective ways to implement the test, the Health and Human Services Department told NBC News.Another $3 million in awards and vouchers will be available for fitness or sports equipment.President Trump signed an executive order last year to bring the test back to schools.
But only 161 schools on U.S.military installations are required to do so, so the administration has looked for ways to boost participation.Starting Thursday, organizations can apply for the cash prizes on a new federal website, Fitness.gov.
Entries can be submitted until February, then winners are expected to be announced in the spring.The fitness test is a lengthy tradition in public elementary, middle and high schools that measures kids’ physical health based on their performance in various cardiovascular and strength exercises.Children compete to win awards by hitting certain benchmarks for their age and sex, such as running a mile in under 10 minutes.
The exercises for the revived test under the Trump administration include a one-mile run, curl-ups, planks, push-ups, pull-ups and shuttle runs.The test aligns with a broader interest in fitness among several top Trump administration officials.Kennedy, who often shares his own workout videos on social media, has pledged to reverse what he describes as an “epidemic” of chronic disease in kids in part by lowering obesity rates through exercise.
And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tightened fitness standards for military troops.The War Department posted a video last year of Kennedy and Hegseth challenging each other to a push-up and pull-up competition.Trump has also promised “a golden age for American sports” as the 2...