Cody Simpson says he’ll return to the entertainment industry after a bittersweet failure to make Australia’s Olympic swim team.
Simpson, a global teen pop star who halted his music career to return to the pool, has missed selection on Australia’s team for the looming Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old finish fifth in the 100m butterfly final at Australia’s selection trials in Brisbane on Saturday night.
“It’s bittersweet,” Simpson said.
“But I did what I could do – and that’s all you can do.”
Simpson’s mother Angie and father Brad both swam for Australia, at the 1987 Pan-Pacific Games and 1994 Commonwealth Games respectively.
Simpson was a promising junior swimmer and, aged 12, won two gold medals at the Queensland state championships in 2009.
That year, the singer-guitarist posted some songs on YouTube and was discovered by an American music manager – his family moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and fame followed.
But four years ago, Simpson couldn’t ignore the itch to return to competitive swimming.
“Just to do right by that kid in me … I wanted to come in these last four years and just have a real good go,” he said.
“To have the chance to be swimming for my country and make Australian teams and medal internationally … is just something that not a lot of swimmers get to achieve or get to experience.
“And I have had the privilege to do that and that’s something that I’ll never forget and that nobody will ever be able take away from me.”
Simpson swam at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and collected a gold medal as a heat swimmer in Australia’s triumphant 4x100m freestyle relay.
“I feel really proud … to satisfy the fire that was inside me to compete and swim again and push myself in training,” he said.
“The discipline and resilience and perseverance that swimming has again instilled in me is something that I’m really excited to implement in my future endeavours because it has just helped me grow so much.
“And how I can take that back into music and entertainment and see what I can do – there’s some exciting projects lined up for after this that I was going to go back and do regardless of how this week went.”