World-renowned Australian singer and newly-returned swimmer Cody Simpson has announced his achievement of a lifelong goal: qualifying for the Australian Olympic Trials. According to an Instagram story from Simpson’s coach Brett Hawke, he swam a 54.9 100 butterfly n an Olympic-distance 50 meter pool to get under the qualifying standard of 56.87.
Hawke’s post goes on to explain that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he and Simpson have been restricted to training at local Californian country clubs and mostly in short course yards. The cut for Simpson is a significant milestone in his return to the sport and he will now have the chance to contest the event at the 2021 Australian Swimming Trials next June.
The swim for Simpson comes just over a year after his return to the pool. Last October, he made his return to racing at the 2019 Trojan Invite. Simpson shared the news via an Instagram post, along with a message detailing his journey over the past decade as a musician, poet, and environmental activist. He then writes:
“Now almost exactly 10 years later, here I am once more. For years I had been fuelled by the silent fire in my stomach of returning to my first love, the sport of swimming, with the idea that 2020 would be my year to have a crack at training again. After only 5 months back in the water training with my incredible coach @hawkebr, I was able to take out a win and secure a spot at next year’s Australian Olympic trials in the 100 fly.”
A son of two swimmers, Simpson excelled in the sport from a young age. Beginning to compete at age 10, by 2012 he had won gold medals in the 100 butterfly and 200 IM at the Queensland Swimming Championships.
As a musician, Simpson rose to stardom in 2010 with his debut single ‘iYiYi’ and released his first studio album 2 years later with ‘Paradise’ in 2012. Since then he has released another 2 albums; Surfer’s Paradise in 2013 and Free in 2015, along with several EPs, most recently B-Sides: We Had and B-Sides: Part the Seas in 2019.
Simpson also released two new songs this month including a new single Higher Forever, along with a Holiday track titled Christmas Dreaming.
‘High Forever’ out now. A chill dance collaboration. Beats by Nairobi, guitar and vocals by your boy.
& we’ve got something extra cool for you at the link in my bio. https://t.co/WLDxftxcYq
— Cody Simpson (@CodySimpson) December 4, 2020
— Cody Simpson (@CodySimpson) December 11, 2020
I’d love to see him do ISL
Yes! If they want more publicity this is the way to go.
It’s impressive that he made Australian trials but I’m not sure if he’s good enough to swim in ISL quite yet. Another year or so and maybe though!
Yes! Hopefully he will train more and continue to improve. Interesting story for sure that’s unheard of!
He’s good but not on that level.
Someone like him probably can’t commit to a whole season and he’d be too slow for a team to commit to him as well, but maybe just for one match per season. It’d be a win-win for everyone. He gets to swim with the big boys, the team gets a ton of fans, and then maybe ISL will actually be broadcast on TV for once…
Is he still with the Cyrus girl? Maybe if she comes to watch, swimming will end up on the entertainment news and actually garner some interest from people the ISL format has been aiming to reach.
They broke up a few months ago now
We need a Swim Swam podcast with this guy. Topic – Get bigger quads in 4 weeks!
I think he misinterpreted what it means to have Olympic quads.
Brett Hawke podcast dropping on Dec 23
Great for the sport!
Dude is pretty jacked for a pop star.
54.9 is super super impressive for someone who has just started seriously training. With this trajectory of progress I can see him going a 53.
Dude just dropped a 53.8 nice job predicting this outside chance he goes a 51 at trials and either makes the team or gets third in that case.
Holy quads!!
Classic Brett Hawke. Whenever there is someone famous or fast he wants to be that persons best friend. Usually he wouldn’t even talk to someone who goes a 54 in the 100 fly.
Perhaps but this is great PR for our sport, which here in the US always plays second fiddle. So kudos to Coach Hawke for making it happen.
Good point!
As someone who swam under Brett with a 53.8 in a 100 fly, this is a very accurate statement. That’s why he can’t hold any team. Awesome for Cody but Brett doesn’t ever deserve the credit.
Those are cyclists legs.
It would be funny if a college team picks him up for a semester (just one…).
Queens would be it
Brett Hawke definitely reads these forms 🙂