Does finger length predict how athletic someone is? Research suggests that a longer ring finger compared to the index finger may be linked to higher athletic ability. You can test this with just a ruler. You measure the index and ring fingers of 10 athletic girls from school sports teams. Then you measure the same fingers on 10 non-athletic girls of the same age. Most of the athletic girls had longer ring fingers on both hands. Most of the non-athletic girls had ring and index fingers of equal length.