Gym rat diplomat

Washington: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she realises few other people are willing to rise at 4.30am to get in a daily workout.

"That's my own particular strangeness," says the gym rat diplomat.

"Like everybody, I get up some mornings and think, ‘I can't do it.' And then I think, ‘Sure you can, because you won't feel as alert if you don't'," Rice said in an interview with Fitness magazine.

Tennis player Billie Jean King was an early sports hero, she said, and former basketball superstar Michael Jordan was "probably the most beautiful athlete of all time".