Many athletes try their hand at making music once they’ve made it big, and few make the transition successfully: just think about Shaquille O’Neal’s rap career in the 90s or Manny Pacquiao’s ill-fated stint as a pop singer. Similarly, few musicians successfully become athletes – which is why Cody Simpson’s story is so interesting.
Before the 25-year-old Gold Coast native’s meteoric rise into a global pop star at the age of 13, he was a rather talented swimmer, having won two gold medals at the 2009 Queensland Swimming Championships. Once he started making in-roads as a singer/songwriter, he had to put his swimming career on hold.
However, back in 2019, it emerged that he’d picked up his swimming again, making it onto the University of Southern California elite swim team and training under two-time Aussie Olympian Brett Hawke. Last year, Cody qualified for the Australian Olympic trials in the 100m butterfly – although despite setting personal best times, he failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics proper.
Now, in 2022, Cody’s finally done it. On Wednesday, he finished third in the 100m butterfly to secure a dream call-up to the Dolphins, Australia’s national swim squad at the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide. This means we’ll see him represent Australia at the FINA World Championships as well as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
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What an absolute bloody champ. The Sydney Morning Herald has called it “one of the most remarkable stories in Australian sport” and we’d tend to agree with them.
“[It’s] a dream come true,” Simpson said after his race on Wednesday night.
“I’ve just been busting my arse all year so it’s amazing to see results like this pay off… I only started training a little under two years after 10-11 years out of the water. I didn’t think I’d be remotely competitive, racing this year at the earliest. To potentially make a team already is just a bonus on the way to [the next Olympics in] Paris.”
We wonder if Miley Cyrus regrets breaking up with him…
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