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Some French high school students who graduate from a “bac pro” (vocational training) manage to defy the statistics and go on to university. This article underlines the importance of sporting commitments in the path to higher education for students who go on to study STAPS (science and technology of sport and physical activity). Far from being naive about the possibility of converting sporting achievements into academic success, these atypical students talk about their choice of university as being risky or daring. These young people, who are trying to move beyond the social destiny associated with their high school diploma, are driven by another tenacious belief – in the importance of “motivation.”