US President Donald Trump has travelled to Ohio to watch high school students compete in the Patriot Games, a sporting event set up by his administration to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.

Two teenagers were picked from every US state to compete in the games, which are taking place in the city of Geneva, about 50 miles (80km) north of Cleveland.

Some military bases, Native American tribes and US territories are also participating.

To qualify, competitors were required to answer questions about American patriotism. The winners, one boy and one girl between the ages of 14 to 17, will each receive $125,000 (£93,000) in scholarship money.

On Tuesday, Trump attended the final day of the games, to see the top 32 athletes compete in the final round.

As he arrived, the football scoreboard outside the event showed a score of 45 to 47 – referring to Trump, who is both the 45th and 47th American president.

Trump praised the athletes, after he watched them compete in an obstacle course, and later handed out cheques to the winners.

The teens are doing “fantastically well,” he told the audience.

The event, which began on Sunday, is taking place at the SPIRE Academy, a sports training facility and boarding school.

It is being hosted by the White House-backed non-profit group Freedom 250, which has also hosted other events to coincide with the 250th anniversary of US independence.

The group was behind the UFC fight at the White House last month and the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington DC.

Danielle Alvarez, Freedom 250 spokeswoman, said: “The 2026 Patriot Games is about more than competition, they’re about the grit, character, and optimism that have carried America for over 250 years.

“These young athletes represent the very best of who we are and the promise of what’s still to come.”

The competition events include track and field activities, dodgeball and kickball, a team sport that combines the rules of baseball and soccer.

The games are airing live on ESPN, with a one-hour special to be broadcast on the ABC network this Thursday at 21:00 EDT (01:00 GMT Friday).

The Walt Disney Company, which owns both ABC and ESPN, is currently under investigation by the Trump administration.

The games were ultimately won by Kennadi Furman, girl from Kansas; and Rockwell Myers, a boy from Utah.

Trump took to the stage to honour the top three boys and top three girls, and to give cheques and trophies to the winners. He also danced on stage as YMCA played from the speakers and audience members chanted “USA”.

During his trip, an F-16 fighter jet was deployed to intercept a plane that violated temporary airspace restrictions over the games.

The jet deployed flares to alert the pilot, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad).

The flares, “may have been visible to the public,” the agency said, adding that the “flares are employed with the highest regard for safety, burn out quickly and completely, and pose no danger to people on the ground”.

Norad intercepts during presidential travel are not uncommon, however it is relatively rare to deploy flares. While Trump was visiting his golf course in New Jersey on Sunday, Norad jets were sent to intercept two different flights that violated temporary flight restrictions.

Trump has made sport an important part of his second term in the White House. He has become the first president to attend a Super Bowl, and was also at the NBA and World Cup finals.

The Patriot Games has been attacked by Trump critics, who have argued that it lacks diversity.

Some opponents have also taken to social media to make comparisons with the Hunger Games, a fictional series in which pairs of children are sent by their respective districts in an imagined country to compete in violent individual contests.