Trump Reveals ‘Patriot Games’ for High School Athletes as Part of America’s 250th Anniversary Celebration

President Donald Trump unveiled a new national athletic competition on Thursday, announcing the launch of the “Patriot Games” as part of America’s upcoming semiquincentennial celebration. The event is designed to spotlight top high school athletes from across the country in a four-day contest set for next year.

“In the fall, we’ll host the first-ever ‘Patriot Games,’ an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes,” Trump declared from the Oval Office. “But I promise there will be no men playing in women’s sports. You’re not going to see that. You’ll see everything but that.”

The competition will feature one male and one female athlete from each U.S. state and territory, with no co-ed events permitted. This aligns with Trump’s “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” executive order signed in February, which enforces Title IX protections to prohibit biological males from competing in female sports at any level of federally funded education.

Freedom 250, the organization overseeing many of the official Semiquincentennial events, called the Patriot Games a symbolic kickoff for the next generation.

“This first-of-its-kind athletic competition will spotlight male and female high school athletes from every state and territory,” the group’s website states. “From opening heats to the live final day in front of a live audience, these competitors will light the torch for a new generation of Americans.”

While key details such as the venue and event list remain under wraps, the Patriot Games are expected to be one of the major highlights of America’s 250th birthday celebration.

The 2026 festivities are shaping up to be expansive. In addition to the games, the calendar includes a national prayer gathering in May, the Sail4th 250 tall ship parade in New York Harbor, the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, and a “Salute to America” fireworks spectacle in the nation’s capital.

Trump also reaffirmed his commitment to building the National Garden of American Heroes, originally introduced by executive order in 2021. The garden will feature statues of “all-time greatest Americans,” as well as a grand triumphal arch to be constructed across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.

“All of this is just the beginning,” Trump said. “2026 will be a celebration of America like no other, honoring our nation and all of its glory.”