FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (June 22, 2026) – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) will call the Broward County Convention Center home for four (4) major AAU national championship events including karate, taekwondo, wrestling, and diving, while also introducing a brand-new national championship event with grappling. This year’s events are even bigger than 2025 and are expected to bring in approximately $37.7 million in economic impact to the Greater Fort Lauderdale area.

“We are thrilled to be back in Greater Fort Lauderdale and working with Visit Lauderdale to bring some of our biggest national events to the area,” said Jo Mirza, AAU President. “This is a perfect area to be a premier host city for some of AAU’s biggest events of the year.”

AAU EVENTS RUN DOWN

AAU Wrestling: The action begins on the mats with the AAU Wrestling Scholastic Duals and Scholastic Open Championships, taking place from June 23 – 30. For the third year in a row, AAU Wrestling will host over more than 2,500 athletes at the Broward County Convention Center. Competitors from 14 different states will travel to Greater Fort Lauderdale including: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. The 28th rendition of the AAU Wrestling Scholastic Duals will also feature one new wrinkle with the new AAU Scholastic Open tournament. 

The event will also feature this year’s inductions into the AAU Wrestling Hall of Fame. This year’s hall of fame class features one of the UFC’s original icons and hall of famers, Dan Severn. For more information, please contact jsunde@aausports.org. 

AAU Taekwondo: Returning to Fort Lauderdale this year, the AAU Taekwondo National Championships will take place from June 28 through July 4. The AAU Taekwondo National Championships are back at the Broward County Convention Center this year in a big way, hosting nearly 3,000 competitors from all 50 states and multiple international representations including: Australia, Canada, Columbia, Georgia, Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The event truly brings the best from all around the globe and will crown national champions, grand champions, and the AAU Indomitable Spirit Award. This award is to recognize athletes who put forth an extra effort and competing in a variety of events and activities. 

This year’s AAU Taekwondo event will feature events such as Board Breaking, Olympic Sparring, Weapons Forms, Traditional Forms, Demo Team, Sport Poomsae, and much more. The event will also feature a para division for board breaking, forms, and point sparring. The top athletes across multiple events at the AAU National Championships will be selected for the AAU Taekwondo National Team. For more information, contact Clinton Oh, Executive Director of Martial Arts, coh@aausports.org. 

AAU Karate: The AAU Karate National Championships will close the slate in Fort Lauderdale, taking place June 30 – July 4. This year will feature traditional karate as well as sport karate disciplines. Athletes as young as 5 and up to athletes who are 36 and older competing in the Master division will participate in this multi-day event that includes special clinics hosted by Olympic champions. The event is estimated to bring in around 1,400 athletes from more than 30 states and territories outside of the United States. For more information, contact Clinton Oh, Executive Director of Martial Arts, coh@aausports.org.

AAU Grappling: For the first time ever, AAU will also be hosting the AAU Grappling National Championships on June 26 -27. The AAU is looking to continue to grow and create new opportunities in combat sports for athletes. This event will be the precursor to AAU Grappling joining the AAU Junior Olympic Games in Des Moines, Iowa in July this year. 

AAU Diving: The AAU Diving National Championships will close out the show in Fort Lauderdale on July 14 - 24. The Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center will play host and showcase athletes from every corner of the country. The venue is home to the iconic Dive Tower, one of the highest diving platforms in the world. The Dive Tower features a record-breaking 27 meters tall with stages for springboard diving, platform diving, and – of course – high diving. Athletes will take to the sky and the pool with hopes of earning an AAU national championship. For more information, contact Lewis Fellinger, AAU Aquatics National Chair, aquatics@aausports.org. 

These nationally recognized events will bring athletes from every corner of the country to the Greater Fort Lauderdale area and kickstart the summer for youth athletics. The AAU is committed to bringing top-level competitive opportunities for amateur athletes nationwide. The Broward County Convention Center allows all athletes to compete under one roof while experiencing the culture of other sports. 

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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.