Trump revives Presidential Fitness Test
The presidential fitness test returns.
President Donald Trump signed an executive decree Thursday afternoon, restoring the national fitness assessment implemented in public schools from 1956 to 2013.
The role of the test administration will fall to the Secretary of Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was vocal in his concern about infantile obesity and whose report “Make America Healthy Again” in February attributed the question, in part, to sedentary lifestyles.
A White House official told NBC News that Trump aims to approach the drop in health and physical form of Americans, including “crisis levels” of obesity, chronic diseases, inactivity and bad nutrition.
“President Trump wants each young American to have the opportunity to focus on healthy and active lifestyles – creating a culture of strength and excellence for the years to come,” said the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, in a statement.
The original presidential physical packaging test was established under the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s and has undergone several iterations in the coming decades. Students were generally invited to make a combination of pumps, pull -ups, rest, running and looking for their toes while seated. From the 1960s, those who had the highest fitness scores were eligible to receive a presidential physical fitness prize.
The Obama administration replaced the fitness test after the 2012-13 school year by the presidential fitness program for young people, which focused more on individual health than sports prowess.
Trump’s executive decree tastes the President’s advice on Sports, fitness and nutrition with the development criteria for a new presidential fitness and the creation of school programs that reward excellence in physical education.
Kennedy said Thursday that the Primidial Fitness Award was “a huge element of pride when I grew up”, adding that “we must reinstall this spirit of competition and this commitment to nutrition and physical form”.
The executive decree also orders the Council to associate with athletes and sports organizations. The chairman of the council, the professional golfer Bryson Dechambeau, was signing Thursday afternoon. Several other professional athletes have also participated, notably the Kansas Kansas City, Harrison Butker, the temple of Football Lawrence Taylor and the Swedish Professional Gulf Annika Sorenstam.
“This advice will play an important role in the development of these new policies and that we preserve the American sports tradition for many generations to come,” said Trump. “And in the years to come, we will have the chance to present the athletic domination of our country on the world scene.”
