Academic Performance and Salary Expectations of Couch Potatoes, Recreational and Elite Athletes: Evidence from Germany

Using a large sample with detailed information on some 4,700 students attending 25 different universities and universities of applied sciences in Germany, we show that elite athletes (indi-viduals competing in their respective sport at the national and international level) have better grades and expect higher career earnings than observationally similar couch potatoes and rec-reational athletes. These findings remain statistically significant when including motivational variables in the different regression models in order to control for the motivation and discipline that inspires “dual career students”.