'Savages'' Salma Hayek Reveals Her Crushed Olympic Dreams

Four days ago Salma Hayek revealed that her dream of competing in the Olympic games was crushed by her father.

The Academy Award nominee actress who next stars in the upcoming film Savages was a talented gymnast as a child and was picked by the Mexican team to represent her country. However her father Sami refused to let her compete.

In the 1970s Hayek was spotted by talent scouts during a gymnastics class in Mexico City and was immediately asked to represent the country in the next Games, but her father declined the offer on the grounds she should have a ''normal childhood''.

According to the 45 vear old actress Salma ''They drafted me ... to be part of the Olympic team! But I was eight or nine and my father said no because I would have had to go live in Mexico City in a boarding school for gymnasts, do six hours, eight hours a day of training, which for me was like paradise.'' At first Hayek was disappointed but doesn't hold a grudge about her father's decision because her acting dream came true when she was older. She said: ''My father thought I wouldn't have had a normal childhood, and he wanted me to be normal. It's too bad that with all his efforts it didn't work out! But anyway, it worked out for me because now I'm an actress!''

Salma Hayek, who is now a mother of four-year-old Valentina Paloma with her French billionaire husband Francois-Henri Pinault, said that she's no longer an athlete and despises exercising. She stated that she is ''probably traumatised'' by her Olympics experience. She also added that ''It's tiring, boring, you have to smell everybody else's sweat and even if you're in your own house, you know, it takes a lot of effort. I like dancing, but I do work out more than before. Oh yes, after you have a baby and after you're 40, forget it girls, enjoy it now!''

 Hayek will next be seen in the Oliver Stone's Savages opening July ^6th . In the film, she plays Elena Sanchez, the leader of the Mexican drug Cartel. Also starring in the film are Taylor Kitsch, Emil Hirsch, Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively and John Travolta. Other hispanic actors include Oscar Winner Beicio Del Toro, Oscar Nominee Demian Bichir, and Telenovela Star Sandra Echeverria.

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