Talented athletes and academic achievements: a comparison over 14 years

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the academic achievements of 200 talented athletes in 1992/1993 and 200 in 2006/2007, aged 14–16 years. When compared with the national average, the athletes in 2006/2007 attended pre‐university classes more often (χ2 = 57.001, p<.05). Of the 2006/2007 athletes, a higher percentage participated in pre‐university programs compared with that of athletes in 1992/1993 (χ2 (1, n = 400) = 32.003, p<.05), whereas the national averages showed stability (χ2 = .325, p>.05). Investigating self‐regulation appears relevant, as talented athletes may have developed a high sense of self‐regulation in sports, which may enable them to optimally profit from their self‐regulatory skills in their academics.