Will a Policy Focus on Physical Fitness and Youth Sports Drive Innovation?
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A presidential proclamation on May 24 echoed the actions of President Eisenhower in 1956. Back then, Eisenhower was concerned about the relative fitness of American youth compared to their European counterparts and established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness to address the gap.

Will a Policy Focus on Physical Fitness and Youth Sports Drive Innovation?

June 03, 2025

A presidential proclamation on May 24 echoed the actions of President Eisenhower in 1956. Back then, Eisenhower was concerned about the relative fitness of American youth compared to their European counterparts and established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness to address the gap.

The new proclamation on National Physical Fitness and Sports Month calls back to this mission, part of the administration’s drive to “Make America Healthy Again” (the commission’s report has just published).

Why this matters:

  • History demonstrates this type of initiative opens doors for profitable innovation—from new types of athletic equipment to new vitamin supplements in food, as explored in this New York Times article from 1986.
  • Former initiatives also change the way educational establishments treat fitness (e.g. the Presidential Fitness Test, and the Obama administration’s Let’s Move). The burgeoning multi-billion-dollar business of college sports, the feeder system of high

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