Patriot Games: Trump’s ‘freedom finale’ to celebrate 250 is … a school sports day

‘Outstanding young Americans’ came together to catch a tennis ball for freedom The Patriot Games, held this week in Ohio, was intended to be a “national athletic competition celebrating the character, determination, and excellence that define the American spirit”, according to a press release. The competition, which organizers insisted would be nothing like the Hunger Games, was to bring together “outstanding young Americans” from across the country, “to compete, inspire, and showcase the values that have shaped the United States for nearly 250 years”. ESPN, hosting the games, said it would “test excellence in skillsets of beloved American sports”. People tuning into the games on Monday might have been surprised, then, to see that one event involved competitors having to catch a tennis ball, hit a stationary ball off the top of a stick, and serve a volleyball over an unguarded net. The competitors certainly looked determined as they grasped their tennis balls, but sporting excellence this was not.

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