NCAA championship athletes from all over the country were celebrated at the White House on Monday, marking the Biden Administration’s first College Athlete Day.  

President Joe Biden was scheduled to host the event honoring NCAA national champions from the 2022-23 season, but it was announced last-minute that Vice President Kamala Harris would take his place as he needed to undergo a root canal. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff joined the vice president on stage.

“All of you represent the best of our country and our communities no matter what you do next,” Harris said addressing athletes gathered on the South Lawn. “And that is why President Biden and I are so optimistic about the future of our country and our world.”

What You Need To Know

  • NCAA championship athletes from all over the country were celebrated at the White House on Monday in an event Vice President Kamala Harris called "first of its kind." 

  • President Joe Biden was scheduled to host the event honoring NCAA national champions from the 2022-23 season, but it was announced last-minute that Harris would take his place due to the president receiving a root canal.

  • More than 40 men’s and women’s teams from all three NCAA divisions attended Monday’s event

More than 40 men’s and women’s teams from all three NCAA divisions attended Monday’s event, which Harris called the "first-of-its-kind." A wide range of sports were represented, including men’s football, women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, women’s gymnastics and more, according to the White House.

"You develop lifelong relationships, you demonstrate teamwork and character, you make the people around you better in every way," Harris said, praising the gathered athletes for their tenacity and hard work: "You are leaders, you are role models and, of course, you are champions."

“I want to thank President Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Harris for their investment in supporting women in sports,” Logan Eggleston, a member of the University of Texas at Austin’s national championship volleyball team, said on stage. “The progress we have seen has been significant, and makes me so proud for what the future holds.”

Stanford women’s water polo player Jackie King told Spectrum News it was her first time in the nation's capital. She and her teammates planned out the monuments they wanted to see on the trip.

“It is amazing to hear Kamala speak and it’s a rewarding feeling to be here knowing everyone here has kind of the same journey but in different ways and now we are all here together,” King said.

President of the NCAA and former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker opened the event, telling athletes: “You are a part of a very important community to this country, the 520,000 athletes, 125,000 of which graduate every single year and go on to do great things.”

Juli Fulks, the head coach of women’s basketball at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., recalled her team’s undefeated season: “To culminate the experience in the first-ever college sports day at the White House, if we were ever going to win a national championship, we picked the right year and the right time to do it.”

It has long been tradition for select NCAA and professional sports teams to visit 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. after taking home titles. Late last month, the president and first lady hosted the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball championship teams. Biden hosted the Kansas City Chiefs last week to honor the team’s Super Bowl victory.

In recent years, the custom has been impacted by political divides. No NBA championship team visited the White House during former President Donald Trump’s tenure in the oval office.