Presidential Fitness Test: Events, Scores, and Award Tiers

The Presidential Fitness Test standards were built around percentile rankings: to earn the top Presidential Physical Fitness Award, a student had to score at or above the 85th percentile for their age and sex on all five events. Hit the 50th percentile across the board and you earned the National award. Attempt all five events but fall below the 50th percentile on any of them and you took home the Participant award.¹

The Three Award Tiers

Raw scores from each event were converted into national percentile rankings based on age and sex, drawn from the 1985 National School Population Fitness Survey. Those percentiles stayed the benchmark for the rest of the program’s original run.²

Presidential Physical Fitness Award: scores at or above the 85th percentile in all five events. Recipients received an emblem and a certificate bearing the presidential seal.
National Physical Fitness Award: scores at or above the 50th percentile in all five events, but below the 85th percentile in at least one.
Participant Physical Fitness Award: given to any student who attempted all five events but scored below the 50th percentile on one or more.¹

The structure was all-or-nothing at the top. A strong mile time and a stack of pull-ups did not carry a student to the Presidential award if the sit-and-reach came up short. Every event had to clear the cutoff.

The Five Events Behind the Scores

Schools followed standardized protocols so scores could be compared nationally. Each event targeted a different fitness area.

Curl-Ups

Students lay on their backs with knees bent and feet about 12 inches from the buttocks, arms crossed with hands on opposite shoulders, while a partner held the feet. On the signal, the student curled up until the outside of the forearms touched the thighs, then lowered until the shoulder blades touched the floor. The count ran for one minute, and bouncing off the floor to gain momentum did not count.¹ A partial curl-up variation was scored to a metronome at one repetition every three seconds.

One-Mile Endurance Run

Students ran a mile as fast as possible; walking was allowed but discouraged. Younger children ran shorter distances: a quarter mile at ages six and seven, and a half mile at ages eight and nine. Times were recorded in minutes and seconds.²

Pull-Ups

From a full hang with arms extended and feet off the floor, using either an overhand or underhand grip, each repetition required raising the chin above the bar and lowering back to a full hang. Kicking, bending the legs, and swinging all disqualified a repetition.¹ Students who could not perform pull-ups could substitute a flexed-arm hang, holding the chin above the bar for as long as possible, or right-angle push-ups.

V-Sit Reach or Sit-and-Reach

This event measured range of motion in the lower back and hamstrings. In the sit-and-reach version, students sat with legs extended and reached forward along a measuring device. The V-sit reach used a forward reach with legs spread in a V position. Distance was recorded in inches or centimeters.²

Shuttle Run

Two parallel lines were marked 30 feet apart, with two wooden blocks behind one line. The student sprinted from the opposite line, grabbed one block, ran back and placed it behind the starting line, then sprinted for the second block and carried it across the finish. Blocks had to be placed, not thrown. Times were recorded to the nearest tenth of a second.¹

Sample Qualifying Scores at the 85th Percentile

Cutoffs changed at every age and differed between boys and girls. A few representative benchmarks show what the Presidential award actually required. Because the program allowed alternative events, the exact tests a school used could vary slightly.

A 10-year-old boy needed to run the mile in roughly 7:57 or faster, complete about 45 curl-ups in one minute, finish the shuttle run in around 10.3 seconds, and reach at least 30 on the sit-and-reach. A 10-year-old girl needed a mile time around 9:19 or faster, about 40 curl-ups, a shuttle run of roughly 10.8 seconds, and a sit-and-reach of 33.

Standards climbed with age. By 12, a boy needed about 50 curl-ups and a mile time near 7:11. A 12-year-old girl needed roughly 45 curl-ups and a mile time around 8:23. These figures came from the 1985 survey data.²

Why the 85th Percentile Was So Hard to Reach

The standards were norm-referenced. Your score depended on how you performed against every other student your age and sex nationally, not on an absolute health target. Because the cutoff was fixed at the 85th percentile, only about 15 percent of students of a given age and sex could clear it on any single event, and clearing all five simultaneously was mathematically far rarer. A student who trained hard and improved substantially could still miss the top award if peers were faster or stronger.

The percentile approach also meant a student’s tightest event set the ceiling. Flexibility scores knocked strong runners out of the Presidential tier constantly, and pull-up counts did the same for students with heavier body types who could otherwise post competitive times.

Do the Old Standards Still Apply?

Not directly. The original Presidential Fitness Test ran in schools from 1966 through 2012, when the President’s Council replaced it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program on September 10, 2012.³ The replacement adopted FITNESSGRAM, which uses criterion-referenced standards. Instead of ranking students against each other, FITNESSGRAM measures whether a student falls within a “Healthy Fitness Zone” tied to long-term health.⁴ Under that model, a student meets the standard regardless of how classmates score.

On July 31, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order reestablishing the Presidential Fitness Test and directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services, with support from the Secretary of Education, to bring the test back as the main assessment for a Presidential Fitness Award.⁵ The order tasked the revived President’s Council with recommending strategies for the reestablished test “with any appropriate improvements,” which leaves open whether the revived version will use the original five events and 85th-percentile cutoffs or something modified.

As of early 2026, the specific events, scoring standards, and award criteria for the reestablished program have not been published. The 1985-based numbers above describe the standards that governed the original test through 2012; the operational details for the revived version are still being developed, and guidance is expected from the Department of Health and Human Services.

1
GovInfo. The Presidents Challenge Physical Activity and Fitness Awards Program
2
President’s Challenge Qualifying Standards Document. Presidents Challenge Qualifying Standards
3
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. History of the Council
4
Let’s Move!. Americas Youth Fitness Test Gets a Makeover
5
The White House. Presidents Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, and the Reestablishment of the Presidential Fitness Test