The U.S. Physics Team Training Camp is a ten-day camp at the University of Maryland run by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Its participants are the roughly 20 high school students named to that year’s U.S. Physics Team, and five are chosen at the end to represent the US at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO). The 2026 camp ran May 30 to June 9 as the Training & Development Camp, and that year’s international event was the European Physics Olympiad (EuPhO) in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June.
There is no application. Students first take F=ma, a 75-minute multiple-choice mechanics exam; about 400 are invited to the three-hour free-response USAPhO, and about 20 are then chosen based on both scores. F=ma is open to US citizens, green card holders and students attending a US school, while USAPhO and the camp are limited to citizens and green card holders who are no older than 20 by June 30. Official pages do not publish a camp fee.
In 2026 AAPT added a USAPhO-Plus exam after USAPhO, including a problem on analyzing experimental data, to choose the five EuPhO travelers and one alternate. Being named to the U.S. Physics Team means placing among roughly the top 20 across that year’s two national exams.
