Managing the balance of academic and athletic responsibilities at university is a serious challenge for student athletes. This phenomenological case study illuminates how one individual successfully managed his study-sport balance at university, and how such experiences shaped his life. Through two semi-structured interviews, the participant Fung Ka Ki, a former student athlete turned international footballer, made sense of his lived experiences at university and achievements post-university. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed for the qualitative analysis. Two themes were derived: 1) Deploying athletic wisdom to inform life coping strategies, 2) Wellbeing through intellect and body developing together as a system. The findings provide insights into how mental and physical discipline may complement each other to create deep existential wellbeing. The study contributes to the on-going debate on whether high performance athletes should further their studies at university, and indicates ways sports and wellbeing practitioners may support student athletes more effectively.

Department of Psychology Lingnan University Hong Kong

School of Philosophy Psychology and Language Sciences University of Edinburgh UK

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