Cody Simpson‘s chances of fulfilling his Olympic dream are looking increasingly unlikely after failing to qualify for the final of the 100m freestyle at Australia’s Olympic swimming trials in Brisbane. The 27-year-old swam 49.04s in his heat on Thursday afternoon but it wasn’t good enough to make the final, finishing 10th.
Despite being disappointed following the race, Simpson said it was a good warm up for his favourite 100m butterfly event later this week. “It’s a stacked field in the 100 free so I knew it was going to be a bit iffy trying to get in to that final,” Simpson said.
“It’s a good warm-up for the 100 fly. I have had a really good last six months of training just absolutely flogging myself. Swimming is tricky … you’re training for a long time for really marginal gains, microscopic sometimes. I have just been banging at the brick wall trying to get to that next level. And the faster you get, the harder it is to keep getting faster.”
The latest setback means his last chance to qualify for the Games will be the 100m butterfly event on Saturday. But his coach, Michael Bohl, doesn’t have much faith in his pupil qualifying in that event either. In the Australian Open championships on the Gold Coast in April, Simpson’s pace was well off the time required to make Paris. And despite his coach saying he has made improvements since then, Simpson will still need personal best time to just make the final.
“He has got to swim PBs (personal bests) to get himself a, through to the final and b, on to the team,” Bohl said on Wednesday. “So it’s a challenge but he’s as ready as he is ever going to be. This is his last throw of the dice and we’re hoping that he can get up and just get the best out of himself. For him to make this team it’s going to be a huge swim It’s possible. But it’s expected that it’s going to be a challenge for him to do.”
Simpson found fame at a young age as a music star but put his singing career on hold in 2019 to chase his dream of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics. And while the swimmer has surpassed what many thought was possible, claiming relay gold and silver medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, qualifying for the Games appears too big of a leap.
In an ideal world, he would be competing in Paris with his partner Emma McKeon, after she became the first woman to qualify for the Aussie swim team aged in their 30s since Lisa Curry in 1992. Already Australia’s greatest Olympian with a record 11 medals, on Monday McKeon become the oldest woman to make the Olympic swimming team in over three decades, sizzling in the 100m butterfly final, finishing first in a time of 56.85 to book her ticket to Paris.
McKeon said ahead of the trials that this will be her final Games as she has no desire to continue her career through to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Her partner, Simpson, has gone back and forth on whether or not he will continue to chase swim glory after this year’s Games. But the fact he is highly unlikely to qualify for the Paris Games has shattered the dream of the pair going out on top together.
In an interview with News Corp in April, the musician-turned-swimmer said he hoped Paris could be a “fairytale ending” to his swimming journey. and also revealed that his next steps with McKeon will be decided after Paris. “I’ve purposefully put a brick wall on either side of it, in that I will address it when it comes,” he said.
“But never once in my life have I not known what is next. Emma has never had a life without swimming. I know what it is like, but she has never had it, so I’m excited for her to explore her other interests and have the time to do that because she has never had it as a kid.”
Cody Simpson proud of his accomplishments in the pool
Simpson’s mother Angie and father Brad both swam for Australia at the 1987 Pan-Pacific Games and 1994 Commonwealth Games respectively. Simpson was always a promising junior swimmer himself and in 2009, aged 12 he won two gold medals at the Queensland state championships. The same year, the singer-guitarist posted songs on YouTube and was discovered by an American music manager.
His family then uprooted their lives to move to Los Angeles the following year and Simpson became a worldwide pop star. He also appeared on Broadway and on numerous American television shows.
But in 2020 he put his singing and acting career on hold to return to the pool with the aim of representing his country. And regardless of the outcome at the trials this week Simpson says he is proud of what he has accomplished and says he has given his all in his pursuit for spot at the Olympic Games.
“Seems like yesterday it was 2020, getting back in the water raw and wildly unfit having not swum or competed since I was a little boy,” the 27-year-old wrote in a post to Instagram. “To look back on how this whole thing has progressed is beyond me. I’ve given everything I have morning and night in training to see what I can get out of myself; burnt every boat I could burn in the pursuit.
“The physical and mental expansion that swimming has now brought me is huge. Along with all the dreams achieved in swimming for Australia. I’ve laid it all out there in these final 6 months and I’m very, very excited to race this week and just see what I can do. Thanks to all who have supported me on my ride. I do all of this for the 12-year-old kid in me. He’d be so stoked to know everything that’s happened. Guess he does ‘cause he’s me! See you on the other side!”
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Simpson made Australia’s team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where he won a gold medal as a heat swimmer in Australia’s triumphant 4x100m freestyle relay. He also placed fifth in the 100m butterfly final and reached the semis in the 50m butterfly. And Bohl says those results are far beyond what he set out to accomplish and therefore when he begins his next stage of life, he can be satisfied that he has given his all to his swimming career.
“What he did making the Commonwealth Games team is what he set out to achieve, he wanted to make an Australian team,” Bohl said. “Not that he doesn’t want to make this (Olympic) one, he desperately wants to make this.
“But making the Australian (Commonwealth Games) team was a win for him. Being out of the sport for a long number of years and coming back and getting in is just a testament to his willpower and his discipline, his determination.”
with AAP