Decathlete Daniel Ballinger knew he wanted to compete in the inaugural Patriot Games when President Donald Trump announced the events in December.
" 'Hey, I'm doing this no matter what,' " Ballinger, 17, recalled texting his track and field coach immediately after hearing about it. " 'I promise you, I'll do everything in my power to make sure I do this.' "
The Patriot Games, starting Aug. 9, will feature boys and girls representing all 50 states and some territories, military bases and tribal nations, competing in a series of athletic challenges. Trump called the games "unprecedented" in the video announcement, which also teased other programming for America's 250th Anniversary.
Max Biondolillo, a 16-year-old representing Florida, said he found
out about the games while visiting Washington, D.C. around this year's Fourth of July festivities. Like many of those events, the Patriot Games are organized by Freedom 250, a quasi-government, nonprofit organization Trump started to bring his vision for the country's anniversary to life.
The organization's events have been controversial, and the Patriot Games are no exception. Democrats were quick to compare the concept to the popular dystopian story "The Hunger Games," in which a boy and girl from each district fight to the death in a televised event.
But four contestants representing Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Oregon interviewed by USA TODAY the week before the competition appeared overwhelmingly excited, if a little nervous, to convene in Ohio for the games.
Water skiing, gymnastics, parkour, track among contestants' primary sports
The high school athletes from around the country will be competing for the chance to win a pool of $250,000 in scholarship money.
A week out from the event, the contestants interviewed by USA TODAY only knew they would be playing dodgeball and kickball, and were anxiously awaiting more information on what other challenges they would face. Throughout the week, Freedom 250 and streaming partner ESPN have announced various track and field events, tug-of-war and other vague games like "Operation Endurance" and "Varsity Circuit."
Freedom 250 said the champion will need to be great at more than one sport. A review of the contestants' announcements on social media shows that the kids selected specialize in a range of sports. Some are to be expected, like football, softball, basketball and soccer.
Meet Patriot Games contestants Daniel Ballinger, Tatum Palmer, Sophia Squyres and Max Biondolillo
Ballinger does track and field, where he specializes in decathlons, a series of 10 track and field events over two days. Others have more unique specialties, like the girl representing Wisconsin who has been involved in her local show water skiing community for years, social media posts show.
Tatum Palmer is representing the state of Oregon in the Patriot Games. She said she spent her recent 15th birthday shopping for different athletic shoes for the games since she usually just wears barefoot shoes for the balancing, jumping and climbing in her main sport, parkour.
"One of the things I love about it is that you don't have to be built a particular way to do it," she said of parkour, an obstacle-maneuvering sport. Palmer also helps teach other kids at the gym where she trains. "There's always something in parkour that you can do, which is really special, watching all these kids grow in confidence and be able to do things that you they weren't able to do a week before, or a couple of weeks before."
Like Palmer, gymnast Sophia Squyres representing Oklahoma is homeschooled. Her parents said it helps accommodate her rigorous gymnastics training schedule. At 14 years old, Sophia Squyres is a level 10 gymnast, the highest level of the USA Gymnastics Developmental program.
"She's probably the strongest teenage girl I've ever met," Sophia's mom Christy Beller Squyres said.
Despite her gymnastics success, Sofia Squyres said she's apprehensive for any contests at the Patriot Games that involve a ball.
For Biondolillo, the Florida athlete, he is eager to be in a sports competition at all. His family primarily lives in an RV and moves around the country every few weeks, though they call Florida their home base.
"I'm excited to prove that people who live (and travel) in an RV like I can, do good things and great things and do sports without being on a team if you just try hard enough," he said. Biondolillo's mom said the Patriot Games provides him an opportunity to compete in ways he doesn't get to due to his homeschooling. But Max said he takes time after his schoolwork to go play sports or work out with his siblings.
Contestants shrug off those 'Hunger Games' comments
While Freedom 250 calls itself nonpartisan, its ties to Trump have thrust the organization into controversy. Several musical acts dropped out of Freedom 250's Great American State Fair because they thought it became too politically divisive, and Trump stepped in to give a rally. Congressional Democrats and watchdog groups have raised concerns that the group lacks transparency, skirts federal rules and allows companies and wealthy individuals to buy access to the president’s office.
The Democratic National Committee's X account was quick to share Trump's announcement of the Patriot Games with a clip from the 2012 movie, "The Hunger Games." Scrolling through the young contestants' social media posts about their training, the welcome packet they received and more, that reputation has stuck with comments nodding to the movie, like "may the odds be ever in your favor."
But the athletes interviewed by USA TODAY mostly shrugged off those comments and said they don't see the competition that way.
"That's just noise. I don't believe that," Ballinger said of the comments. "I'm honored to represent my nation."
Squyers and Palmer said they just don't think of it like that, and instead are focused on the opportunity it presents, especially with the scholarship money on the line. Palmer said she wants to go to school to be a sports journalist, and Squyers has aspirations to study sports medicine in college while continuing her gymnastics career.
"I don't think people should be calling it the Hunger Games," Biondolillo said. "I'm not going to be hurting anybody. It's sports, just another sports competition. I don't like people calling it Hunger Games."
They also had resounding, similar answers for what they are most looking forward to for the weekend: Meeting each other. The kids, many of whom said they are already in touch with each other via social media and group chats, also said they will get to dorm together at Spire Academy, a sports boarding school in Geneva, Ohio, where the games are being hosted. According to Freedom250, all states and several tribal nations, military bases and U.S. territories will be represented by 120 student-athletes.
Trump's Patriot Games schedule, live stream
The games will be livestreamed on the ESPN App Aug. 9-11. The schedule of events, including kickball, dodgeball and tug-of-war, can be found here.
The one-hour ESPN special on ABC showing highlights of the competitions, features of the athletes and the moment the winners accept their awards, is scheduled to air Thursday, Aug. 13 at 9 p.m. ET.
Contributing: Karissa Waddick, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Threads, Bluesky and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why join Trump's Patriot Games? These teen athletes tell us
