“[The flexibility] is super important because it’ll really let me keep travelling around the world while keeping my studies on point.

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“Yes, I think I can balance sports and studies since my [older] sister is a also a student in the same subject so she can help me.”

“Skiing is classed as one of the extreme sports and injuries do happen,” said Malaysian-born Yung, whose interest in the Bachelor of Science programme’s climate change and marine ecology courses come as no surprise given he and his older sister would snorkel with marine biologists in Lankawi every summer.

“There are risks when travelling at those speeds that something might go wrong and you might end up in the wall – it might be bad enough that your career stops there.

“[The degree] is a safety net that I and my parents believe in – I don’t think I can race forever. It’s not a cheap sport, either, so I need to at least sustain or fund myself to do these races.”

Yung called it “a tremendous honour” to be accepted into the city’s top university and will “capitalise on the opportunity as much as possible” come September.

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Though he will be busy training on the European slopes in the off-season, the 17-year-old expects to return to his parents’ birthplace for orientation week.

“I’m pretty used to academics and sports at the same time. I’ll probably need a little bit more time to adjust – coming back to Hong Kong and being in its education system – but with the amazing support, hopefully I can be back on the snow sometime in November,” he said.

“[The scholarship] was also a really big surprise. I was searching for all these sponsorships in the lead-up to the Olympics – anything to lessen the financial burden – so to get this incredible level of support definitely motivates me to push further. To at least bring back results that reflect the level of support I’ve been given.”

The 2019 Asian Championships bronze medallist is training in Spain and is more-than confident in walking the student-athlete tightrope come lecture season. He is expecting to join the university’s Business School with the help of his older brother and father who studied in the same field.

“I’m blown away by the opportunity and what HKU are willing to do to support athletes,” said Aylsworth, whose previous secondary-level Harbour School was “very accommodating” of his sailing career. He added his parents were “very stoked” with the HKU scholarship.

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“Just how flexible and lenient [HKU] are for our competitions – it’s unprecedented in Hong Kong. It really is a game-changer.”

“It’s a tricky balancing act for sure. But balance is really important. I have been really pushing with sailing the past two years with the two gap years I’ve taken, so it’s going to be very good to be back in school.

“Education is so important and super valuable. I don’t think I can sail forever in the type of boat I’m in because it’s extremely physically demanding, so I have to plan for after my Olympic career.”

Last week, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University also committed to providing two young elite athletes with “full support to achieve both sports and academic aspirations”.

Tokyo Olympics swimmer Tinky Ho Nam-wai, 19, and Asian Games sprinter Leung Kwan-yi, 21, were admitted to the university’s humanities faculty under the “Student-Athlete Learning Support and Admission Scheme”, offering more than 200 scholarships a year to promising local athletes.