Yes, jocks and athletes are typically portrayed as unintelligent (sometimes to the point of being Too Dumb to Live). But this guy, or girl, is different — this jock just made the Dean's List and has to choose between an academic scholarship to a prestigious Ivy League school, or the football scholarship in the Big 12. In other words, it's what you get when you combine a well-toned mind with well-toned muscles.
For whatever reason, at least in fiction, this character is usually much more likely to be female than male, even though the sports being played are traditionally male-dominated. In real life, it's a much different story, as plenty of male academic athletes exist, but at least in fiction, Academic Athletes are Almost Always Female, possibly for feminist (or not-so feminist) reasons. This is probably done as a mix of Passionate Sports Girl and Higher Education Is for Women. If there's a contrast between two girls, this one will be firmly the Tomboy in Tomboy and Girly Girl because of how independent she is. Sensitive Guy and Manly Man on the other hand are less likely to use this as the sensitive guy is more likely to be academic and the manly man is more likely to be athletic. If there is a contrast between two athletic tomboys, the toxic manly tomboy will most likely not be an academic or cultured athlete, while the relatively more effeminate boyish tomboy (or a tomboy with a stronger girly streak) will be both an academic and cultured athlete. Truth in Television: studies have shown that students, both male and female, that engage in artistic extracurricular activities, such as music, singing, dancing, and other fine arts and crafts, tend to get better grades than those who do not engage in artistic extracurricular activities, so in many cases, a female academic athlete is also more likely to be an artistically cultured athlete as well.
A common way for works of media art to play with this trope is by making the Academic Athlete a Jack of All Trades who is good at both, but not the best at either. Once again, in this scenario, the character is most likely to be a female tomboy, whereas the male tomgirl/girly boy will be excellent at academics, but poor at athletics, while the male Manly Man will be excellent at athletics, but poor at academics. As for girly girls, since once again, higher education is (usually) for women, girly girls will be excellent at academics, but poor at athletics, similar to tomgirls and girly boys. If there is a Tomboy and Girly Girl contrast taken into account, assuming the media work is using this scenario, the girly girl (and the tomgirl/girly boy) will usually have better academic grades than the tomboy; however, in turn, the tomboy will usually have better academic grades than the manly man, since she takes her grades more seriously. However, since there are limitations as to how much time and effort she can dedicate to both academics and athletics, it will affect her performance in both departments.
Another common way to play with this trope, when featuring both male and female academic athletes, is to have them excel better at different subjects based on their gender. In Real Life, when it comes to college, male students are more dominant in the STEM fields (natural and formal sciences, technology, and engineering fields), whereas female students are more dominant in humanities, arts, and social sciences (also known as social studies); business fields can swing either way, but tend to lean slightly more towards men.
They don't have a Dumb Muscle look to them, neither a smart but sporty look—it's more somewhere between casual and tough.
Can overlap with Renaissance Man (or rather, Renaissance Woman). Very often Truth in Television, especially in individual sports. If the character is intended to be gay in order to appeal to the LGBTQ demographic, she may also be a Lesbian Jock, although not all female athletes are lesbians.
Compare Genius Bruiser, Badass Bookworm, Adventurer Archaeologist, and Genius Ditz. Contrasts with Dumb Jock and Brains Versus Brawn.
