As the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Patriot Games — a youth sporting event organized through an initiative of the Trump administration — is holding its national finals in Geneva, Ohio, and former President Donald Trump is set to join the competition’s closing day on Tuesday.
This invitational competition brings together top young athletes from across the country, selected through a qualification process that includes a test on American patriotic knowledge. Two participants are chosen from every U.S. state, with additional delegations invited from military installations across the nation, federally recognized Native American tribes, and U.S. overseas territories. All competing athletes fall between the ages of 14 and 17, and after preliminary rounds, 32 top competitors have advanced to the final round that will take place during Trump’s visit.
Hosted at SPIRE Academy, a prominent Ohio-based sports training center and boarding school, the event kicked off on Sunday and is organized by Freedom 250, a non-profit organization with backing from the White House. The group has planned a full slate of national events throughout 2026 to coincide with the semiquincentennial of U.S. independence, including a high-profile UFC fight held at the White House last month and the Great American State Fair hosted on Washington D.C.’s National Mall.
Danielle Alvarez, communications director for Freedom 250, framed the competition as a celebration of American youth values. “The 2026 Patriot Games is about more than competition, they’re about the grit, character, and optimism that have carried America for over 250 years,” Alvarez said in a statement. “These young athletes represent the very best of who we are and the promise of what’s still to come.”
The competition features a range of athletic events, from traditional track and field competitions to popular recreational team sports including dodgeball and kickball — a fast-paced group activity that blends elements of soccer and baseball rules. Live coverage of the games is airing on ESPN, and a one-hour primetime special highlighting the competition is scheduled to broadcast on ABC this Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT, with a global airing at 1 a.m. GMT Friday.
A notable subtext to the broadcast partnership is the ongoing regulatory investigation into The Walt Disney Company, which owns both ESPN and ABC, launched by the Trump administration.
The event comes as Trump has placed a distinct focus on sports throughout his second presidential term, marking a series of firsts for a sitting U.S. president: he has become the first sitting commander-in-chief to attend a Super Bowl during his tenure, and has also made public appearances at both the NBA Finals and the men’s FIFA World Cup final.
Despite its organizing framing as a patriotic celebration, the Patriot Games has not been without controversy. Critics of the Trump administration have pushed back against the competition, arguing it lacks meaningful demographic diversity across its participating cohort. Others have drawn unflattering comparisons to the fictional “Hunger Games” franchise, a popular dystopian series in which two teenagers are selected from each of the story’s 12 districts to fight to the death in a nationally broadcast competition.
The top prizes for the competition are substantial: the winning boy and winning girl from the 14-17 age group will each take home $125,000 in college scholarship funding, an award designed to support the educational goals of the young competitors.