GENEVA, Ohio — Spire Academy hosted a Donald Trump rally during his 2016 campaign for president. That was his first visit to the northeast Ohio high school’s athletic facility. His second came Tuesday night, as his brainchild, the Freedom 250 Patriot Games, commenced its final night of competition.
In the span of the hour-long youth sports event, he said little, other than calling the high school athletes “incredible people.” Tickets remained available hours before the spectacle, and the crowd was relatively thin in spots. Still, the evening had the feel, at times, of a political event.
As pyrotechnics went off and Trump wandered from a tunnel into the field house, supporters cheered, “U.S.A.” chants rained, and the actual athletes disappeared from focus.
“This is going to be a Trump rally,” said Chase Boggs, the father of West Virginia’s male representative, who was eliminated before the final but still chose to attend. Because? “We all love Trump! Why wouldn’t I want to go to this once-in-a-lifetime thing?”
Which made this the most fitting curtain call for a weekend that simply can be described as strange.
Throughout the events of Sunday and Monday, which included dodgeball, tug-of-war and a mix of obstacle-course contests, athletes competed aggressively, with $250,000 on the line for the pair of winners.
It was mostly unclear how those athletes were selected. A Freedom 250 spokesperson explained in a statement Monday that “submissions were compiled into a composite score, blending athletic performance data with the strength of each applicant’s essay and video.”
The event billed itself as bringing together America’s best youth athletes, with all participants between the ages of 14 and 17. But the White House-backed Freedom 250 nonprofit scarcely promoted the competition outside of its own channels. There appeared to be only a handful of non-White participants.
“We heard about this, originally, through a Facebook post, I think,” said Christopher Brennan, North Carolina’s male representative. “Obviously, this is really cool to get this attention and everything. And these are great athletes our age, you know? So, like, I don’t know. It’s cool to be around a lot of people like yourself.”
Faith was a central topic among participants. Athletes began doing devotionals before events. Many wrote Bible verses on their legs and arms, drawing crosses on athletic tape. “This is a youth Christianity conference,” one woman was heard saying over the phone.
Similarly, “Trump,” the word as much as the figure, reigned over the proceedings. Whether it was after running through a course, before beginning a kickball game or as a small devotion before eating a spicy Chick-fil-A sandwich, athletes and families made clear the central reason they congregated in this small Ohio town.
“Thank God for Mr. Trump,” Boggs said. “None of this would be possible without him.”
So when he arrived, the final quickly morphed into one of his distinctive shows. Strobe lights batted against the dark arena roof, the stands still hazy with smoke from the pyrotechnics set off during the rehearsal hours earlier.
When the cracking of Marine One fell over the facility, a hearty roar tore out, with exclamations of “2028!″ and “We love you, President Trump!” An old-timey announcer screamed barely recognizable cheers.
The eight remaining athletes competed, hugging one another after completing the race and then drifting into a crowd of their peers while ESPN’s Laura Rutledge did interviews. The competitors who’d already fallen on previous days watched, gold medals dangling from their necks. (Every competitor got one.) They surrounded a Caesarean seat in the center of the stands where the president presided. To his right: Pat McAfee. To his left: Susie Wiles, among others.
“It’s going to be incredible to meet the president,” said Boggs’s son, Cutter. “Obviously, the athletic opportunity is incredible with ESPN and stuff. But this is about him. He made this whole thing happen, at least, right? Like, that’s so cool.”
Disney’s cameras caught it all, which is why journalists who attended had to agree beforehand not to report the identity of the winning athletes before Thursday, when ABC will broadcast a recap of the week and the finale.
It’s an interesting pairing. This spring, the Federal Communications Commission ordered an early review of the broadcasting rights renewals of ABC’s local stations. This week, a half-dozen contractors working the Patriot Games for ESPN, ABC’s sister network, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly, suggested that ESPN’s broadcasting of the event was a product of that investigation — an attempt to smooth over tensions.
Those interviews came before all reporters covering the event were barred Monday from roaming the property freely, instead needing a media chaperone to accompany them at all times. Freedom 250 made the decision to prevent further unsupervised reporting after The Post’s first coverage of the event.
But that felt distant as these games reached a whirlwind end. After the pair of champions took the stage, Trump stood between them, smiling. He patted their shoulders. Then the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” blasted from the speakers, and he briefly performed his memed dance to the crowd’s approval.
“I just want to thank President Trump,” the male winner said as he grabbed his check and his trophy.
“Thank you, Mr. President!” the second winner chimed in.
Yet before they could speak to him, Trump strolled away. He stopped in the tunnel, alone, looking back at his creation. Then he turned and walked out, less than an hour and a half after he arrived.
“U.S.A.” chants continued to pour, once more drowned out by the helicopter blades clicking outside.
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