FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (June 19, 2025) - The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is taking over Greater Fort Lauderdale this summer with three major national championship events including wrestling, karate, and gymnastics and trampoline & tumbling. Last year’s events brought in approximately $24.6 million in economic impact to the Greater Fort Lauderdale area with this year’s events expected to surpass those numbers while bringing a new energy to the city during the summer months. 

“Florida is the home of the Amateur Athletic Union and we are incredibly excited to work with Visit Lauderdale again this year and bring some of our top events to the area” said Jo Mirza, AAU President. “Greater Fort Lauderdale is quickly becoming a premier host city for the AAU.”

Thousands of youth athletes from across the country will travel to South Florida to compete for championship titles and showcase their skills on a national level all under one roof at the Broward County Convention Center. New to the events this year will be the addition of AAU Gymnastics and Trampoline & Tumbling.

The action begins with the 2025 AAU Gymnastics and Trampoline & Tumbling National Championship, taking place June 18 – 21. For the first time in the event’s history, this championship will be held in Greater Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This premier event will bring together more than 2,625 athletes and 450 coaches from 26 different states for one of the largest competitions of the AAU gymnastics season. As apart of the AAU Cares Kids Helping Kids campaign, the AAU asks that participants decorate a shoebox to raise funds for a local 501c non-profit organization named Kids In Distress. This organization is dedicated to preventing child abuse and treating victims of abuse and neglection. For more information, contact gymnastics@aausports.org.

Next, the AAU Wrestling Scholastic Duals will return to the Greater Fort Lauderdale area, with weigh-ins scheduled to start on June 22 and competition days running June 23 – 28. This year’s event will feature over 2,860 wrestlers with 575 coaches from nearly 150 teams from 16 different states. This will be the 27th rendition of the AAU Wrestling Scholastic Duals, and the second year in Greater Fort Lauderdale. Athletes will be competing in six different divisions with hopes of capturing an AAU championship. For questions or more information, please contact cfox@aausports.org. 

Closing out the summer’s AAU championship slate is the 2025 AAU National Karate Championships, taking place June 30 – July 6. This will be the first AAU Karate National Championship since the organization’s new partnership with USA Sport Karate, announced earlier this year. Athletes as young as 5 and up to the age of 35 will participate in this multi-day event that includes special clinics hosted by Olympic champions. The event is estimated to bring in around 1,500 athletes. On July 1, 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist Steven Da Costa will lead the Kumite Clinic, while fellow Olympic Gold Medalists Sandra Sanchez and Jesus Del Moral will instruct the Kata Clinic. For questions, contact aaukaratenationalprogram@gmail.com. 

These three major events mark a powerful summer for youth athletics in Greater Fort Lauderdale, as the AAU continues its mission to provide top-level competitive opportunities for amateur athletes nationwide.

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Media Contacts:
Troy MacNeill, AAU Marketing Manager
o: 407-828-3055 | troy@aausports.org

Ebony Tyre, Visit Lauderdale Public Relations Manager
O: 954-767-2445 | etyre@broward.org & VisitLauderdalePR@hemsworthcommunications.com 

ABOUT THE AAU:
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is the largest, non-profit, event-driven multi-sports organizations in the country. Founded in 1888 to establish standards and uniformity in sports, the AAU philosophy of “Sports For All, Forever” is now shared by nearly 1,000,000 members and 150,000 volunteers across 45 sports programs and 55 U.S. districts annually. For more information, visit www.aausports.org.

About Visit Lauderdale:
Visit Lauderdale is the official destination marketing organization for Greater Fort Lauderdale and serves as the tourism department for Broward County, Florida. Visit Lauderdale promotes the area’s 31 municipalities to a global audience of leisure and business travelers as the ideal place for Everyone Under the Sun in recognition of the area’s diverse and welcoming vibe, and books conventions into the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center and area hotels and resorts. Find more information at visitlauderdale.com and follow @VisitLauderdale on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.