Olympic fever

As Olympic fever hits, Salma Hayek admits that her dream of competing at the Olympics was stopped by her father when she was a child. The ‘Frida’ actress was a highly talented gymnast and was picked by the Mexican team to represent her country. Her dad, Sami, thwarted her ambitions by refusing to let her compete. Salma, 45, says, “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 to eight hours a day of training, which for me was like paradise.” The star was spotted by talent scouts during a gymnastics class in Mexico City in the 1970s but her father wanted her to have a “normal childhood”. Salma laughs, “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!”