this. the west has long had an understanding that physical athleticism and academic excellence complement each other. that is why sport has been such a central part of the british grammar school since the 1800s, and was likwise adopted by american secondary schools as an important part of school life. not only is this an acknowledgement of the reality that you mentioned that those with success in sport are often successful in other pursuits in life, it is also an acknowledgement that education and life in general should be broad in its pursuits and well rounded. this is for the benefit of the individual so that they can achieve the greatest satisfaction from their life as a whole.  it is actually a serious problem that asian cultures do not approach education or life in the same way. it wouldn't matter 100 or even 50 years ago. but it matters now. what they are doing is forgoing broad experience for hyper specialisation. sadly this is also what our economy is doing at the same time. so now this attitude to life is being rewarded in a way that is wasn't in the recent past. when a behaviour is rewarded it is incentivised and more people adopt it. even worse, those that don't can be pushed further to the margins of society.  so really this whole discussion is a microcosm of the decay of western society, where economic objectives have become divorced from quality of life objectives. how bad are we willing to make life in the west in order to gain ever more wealth? this is the central question of our generation.
Australia