Surrey student puts Cristiano Ronaldo to the test

16 September 2011

University of Surrey PhD student Zoe Wimshurst has been putting Real Madrid and Portugal football star Cristiano Ronaldo to the test in a recent television documentary.

'Cristiano Ronaldo - Tested to the Limit' was aired last week on Sky Sports and featured the former Manchester United star participating in a rigorous scientific examination arranged by Castrol.

Ronaldo was put through a series of tests to measure his footballing skills, strength and agility with Surrey Psychology student Zoe Wimshurst also testing the world's most expensive footballer's mental strength and intuition.

Zoe studies at the University of Surrey for her PhD in Psychology, looking into how the performance of sportsmen and women can be boosted by improving their vision, which formed the basis of Cristiano's tests during the show.

Wimshurst is a sports vision expert at her company Performance Vision, working out of Surrey Sports Park's Human Performance Institute with clients including England Hockey, athletes from the British Olympic Association and Harlequins, who are based at the Sports Park.

As part of a line-up of sports experts, Zoe provided expert comment and analysis on Ronaldo's performance in two tests, including studying how much time he spends looking at a ball at his feet during gameplay and how he relies on his experience and intuition to score in a pitch black environment.

Talking about the experience, Zoe said, "I really enjoyed the filming. We went to Madrid for a long weekend and the hours were very long but meeting Ronaldo was good - it was really interesting just seeing him do all the different tests and finding out what a great athlete he is.

"I also learnt a lot about what goes into making a television programme! Really long hours, lots of pressure to get things done first time and little room for error. But it was still very fun."

You can watch the feature with Critiano Ronaldo and Zoe online below: