Cathy Freeman and Her Extraordinary Senses.

Meeting Cathy Freeman the other day at the Laureus World Sports awards in Abu Dhabi for the first time since she won the 2000 Olympics gold medal in the 400 metres in Sydney in front of an expectant home nation reminded me of an amazing trick she pulled off the only other time we had met. Shaking my hand for a second or two at a Melbourne gym where she was working out she immediately told me that I played guitar. This was correct but I wanted to know how on earth she knew this on the basis of a two-second handshake. "It's the hard skin on your fingertips," she explained. For those not in the know it is the continual pressure of your fingertips on the strings that hardens the skin, but it was an incredible spot from Freeman, nonetheless. "I find my senses are heightened when I've been exercising," she told me last week. "That's my only explanation for what I did that day. Funnily enough I was only telling someone else about it recently, but I couldn't remember who it was I shook hands with until you reminded me." So Cathy was happy that little mystery was solved, while I continue to marvel at her extraordinary senses.