I'm laughing.
Car washes are littered with "athletes".
The biggest drinkers at my high school and college were "athletes". In my grad school (MBA), the intellectual Korean students rose above the rest of us. They worked harder and partied less.
Sure, there's a balance between body, mind and spirit, but answer me this:
How many jobs have listed "Soccer Experience?" on the employment form?
And yet, every year the "Educational Experience:" section gets more and more space. Hmmmmm.....
Maybe not jobs, certainly colleges.
Flip it and look at the sports experience of CEOs, real estate moguls and top politicians - people with command authority.
Professional sports is not the key.
But the competitiveness, and the ability to play by rules, and to stretch to win, these are athletic talents.
Asians don't outperform Anglos. Chinese, Koreans and Japanese outperform Anglos (including Jews) in mathematics, and in the physical sciences (less so in the biological sciences). Nice, rigid things, with right and wrong answers.
Anglos outperform Asians in the various linguistic skills and liberal arts. Sloppier things, with less clear cut answers, and where style matters a great deal.
Now look very carefully at Wall Street and investment banks, and Congress. When we speak not of GOOD jobs, or high-paying jobs, but jobs that involve command and influence over people and great enterprises, all of a sudden the field completely reverses. The people in command are the best liberal artists, because they can communicate their ideas better. And most of them are really quite athletic, and competitive in social sports.
Also, the Asians LAMENT the white flight. THEY want their kids to fit in. They don't want their kids to be raised in an Asian ghetto. My neighbors, who are Chinese, and I discussed this very article at length over Thanksgiving. They view is that white flight is bad, because it will marginalize the Asian kids. And they're right. Because getting perfect scores in math is not really what gets people jobs in America. Certainly it does not get anyone command.
Take a look at Wall Street and Washington, where the top money is.
What Asians are in command there? The ones who also developed the language and diplomatic skills.