Objective: To understand the association between sugar sweetened beverage consumption with physical fitness index among college students, so as to provide a reference for the improvement and intervention of college students physical fitness. Methods: From September to December 2021, a total of 5 520 college students from universities in Jilin, Anhui, Jiangxi, Xinjiang, and Shanghai, were surveyed with sugar sweetened beverage consumption and physical fitness using stratified cluster sampling. One way ANOVA and Logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the association between sugary drink consumption and physical fitness index (PFI). Results: The frequencies of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among college students were 10.3% , 67.2%, 13.9% , and 8.6% for 0, 1-3, 4-5, and ≥ 6 times/week, respectively. The differences in waist circumference, grip strength, standing long jumping, sit and reach, 50-meter running, and 1 000/800 meter running performance were statistically significant among college students with varying sugar-sweetened beverage consumption ( F =8.67, 7.22, 11.20, 13.47, 3.98, 2.86 , P <0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that those who had sugary drinks 4-5 times/week, ≥ 6 times/week had a higher risk of low PFI compared to those who reported no sugary drinks ( OR =1.48, 1.56, P <0.05). With respect to gender, the risk of low PFI was also higher among male students who consumed sugary drinks ≥6 times/week ( OR =2.01, P <0.05), while there was no significant difference among female students. Conclusion Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is negatively associated with the physical fitness index among college students with significant gender differences. College students, especially males, should be targeted to improve health literacy, reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, so as to improve physical fitness.