In Athens, Cody Simpson took another step closer to reaching his goal of representing Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Simpson tied American Michael Andrew for second in the 100m butterfly on the opening day of the second Swimming World Cup held in one of the Olympic pools that hosted water polo at the 2004 Olympic Games. 

The two silver medallists swam 51.92, just one-tenth slower than event winner South Africa’s Matthew Sates winning time of 51.82. The unshaven Simpson wasn’t far from his best time of 51.78 swum last December at the Queensland Championships and swam faster than his 6th place finish a week ago in Berlin. This was Simpson’s first international medal in an individual event after earning relay gold as silver medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as a swimmer in the preliminaries.  

"Just to get faster every time," is Cody's answer to what his mission is in swimming. "So far, I am able to do that incrementally. 

"I am over here for experience on the international stage and to get some racing in as I have only had one international competition prior to this."

That First International Podium

Simpson brings us into the day's build-up to achieving a stepping stone milestone to reaching his ultimate goal of the Paris 2024 Games:

"To be up here on the podium with these guys is really cool. I have loved (watching) their swimming for years. I am really pleased with that race. I wanted to try to sneak under 52 tonight. It was the first time I have ever done it unshaved.

"I was definitely a step forward for my swimming. I just wanted to get up and demand a podium for myself before the race.  It was really nice to have touched the wall and seen that happen. I hope that I can keep improving over the course of the next week and a half.

"I felt pretty good in warm up and I did things a bit differently tonight and I tried to stay a little more relaxed than I normally would.  I think that’s working in my favour,  That’s what being here is all about. To go through the pre-race routines and to have so many races and to figure out what works for me. I think I am finally able to get into that groove. 

It was the most relaxed on the blocks that I have been in a while. It's crazy to be sandwiched in amongst all these Olympians and Olympic medallists.  It’s kind of wild for me being still such a rookie in the sport.

"To look to my left and see Michael Andrew and to look to my right and Matt Sates is there. I have been working mentally on telling myself that I belong here."

Simpson is one of 19 Australian swimmers competing in all three stops of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup. His body is muscular and sculpted from the intensity of his training. He’s sporting 7 tattoos that are not unusual on a pool deck of elite swimmers. He’s an athlete with an interesting backstory seemingly having lived another life before he returned to the pool to reclaim the title of “swimmer”.  

Simpson has embarked on a campaign to shake the label popstar by swimming fast enough to earn the coveted title of Olympian.

Cody Simpson the Swimmer | The Early Years

Cody Simpson was a record-breaking swimmer when he was a kid, but he has spent almost a decade out of the pool.  As an energetic youngster, he was blessed with athletic talent, but he was also exploring his passion for music. His aquatic hiatus at age 13 in favour of playing and recording music well beyond an internet audience. 

He was offered touring gigs across the world, acting roles, and television reality performances that included Dancing with the Stars in the USA and winning the first season of The Masked Singer in his native Australia. But in 2019, he made the decision to try to rekindle his first passion and set a goal of representing Australia at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

'A few years ago, I used to go to bed at 5 a.m. Now I get up at 5 a.m.,' Cody Simpson told GQ magazine in an interview that revealed he is cutting out alcohol, has improved his diet and is committed to an intense exercise regimen. 

The June 2021 magazine article in GQ wasn’t simply a profile about a rockstar who was seeking his 15 minutes of notoriety.  Perhaps Simpson experienced a “fame overload” in his quarter-century lifetime largely based in the USA where he and his family decided to move to pursue his music career. 

Simpson surely is entitled to his reasons for his return to the swimming pool. He explained his campaign to swim for Australia succinctly:  “I am all in”.  His message reinforced his own steely commitment to a goal that many thought was lofty if not unattainable.  He informed those who have any doubts about his determination to qualify for the Australian Olympic team that will compete next summer in Paris.

Two years after that interview and 30 months of training in the pool it's more than clear that Simpson has doubled down on the vision he had for his future self. The road map he crafted may have included a return to the pool, guided by the lane lines and challenged by the ever-present black stripe always just ahead. Little did he know that his parents, teammates, coach and partner might be key reasons why the seemingly impossible goal is in fact exceedingly possible.

The wild and wildly successful ride Simpon took after trading his Speedo for stardom may have been more rewarding than the promising age group swimming career he halted.

Back in the day, Simpson trained alongside three-time Olympian Cameron McEvoy.  McEvoy is the newly minted world champion in the 50m freestyle at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka. Before he was a teenager Simpson was himself an emerging talent winning gold medals in each stroke at the National Schools and Pan Pac Schools Championships. He was a National Age champion at ages 12 and 13 while always passionate about music. 

Breaking Out | From YouTube Videos from the Living Room to Rapping with Flo Rida 

Simpson became a YouTube breakout phenom by posting the videos his mom filmed in their living room. By the time he turned 13 Simpson landed a record contract and in 2010 released his debut album that included the single iYiYi which featured American rapper Flo Rida. His family would need to consider a decision about moving to the USA, a condition of the recording contract he was offered.

But Simpson’s choice to quit swimming wasn’t one that long-time Miami Swimming Club coach Denis Cotterell thought was the right decision or the best thing to do for the promising age group swimmers. Cotterell’s words to Simpson were  “Don’t stop, you have a gift for swimming”.  

His coach was sure he hadn’t gotten through to the young man, but perhaps the message was stored somewhere in the back of the young mind of the swimmer along with a massive list of items he really hoped to achieve outside of the pool.  Simpson left the regimen of swimming, never looking back, or so he thought.

His father Brad Simpson would sign the recording contract which stipulated the teenager live in Los Angeles.  Although determined to relocate to the USA on his own, his parents weren’t going to let their teenage son do that.  “You hear all the horror stories of child stars going off the rails but I think having the family around helps keep the boundaries there,” said Simpson’s father.

In their youth, his parents were accomplished swimmers as well. Angie was a national champion and a member of Australia’s team that competed at the 1987 Pan Pacific Championships held in Brisbane.  Brad was a member of the 1994 Commonwealth Games squad that competed in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. 

His parents Brad and Angie decided to move the family of five including Cody’s two younger siblings Tom and Alli from Bonowa, a town on the Gold Coast for what they thought might be a one-year experience.  

Simpson would find opportunities in front of him as a chart-topping singer releasing four solo studio albums. His popularity with the teenage daughters of President Obama was evident when they asked their father to invite Simpson to perform at the White House for the President’s Annual Easter Egg Roll. 

He opened shows for Bieber’s Believe tour and was on a Bieber-like path to stardom.  Simpson was sought after as a model and he appeared in a lead role in the Broadway musical Anastasia.  He even released a book on poetry and was a celebrity contestant on Dancing with the Stars in the USA. 

According to his friends, Simpson kept in touch with the water over the years, but he did more gym stuff as his body grew.  Even his friend and mentor, pop star Justin Bieber, recognized that ‘his little brother Cody Simpon’ wasn’t so little anymore.  

In 2019, Simpson was back in the water, initially joining the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, training under Trojans Coach Dave Salo and Australian sprinter Brett Hawke who previously coached at his alma mater Auburn University.

The Simpson family returned to Queensland after eight years in California. They said they had turned down three lucrative offers to feature in a family reality show.  

After nearly a decade of playing and recording music, touring, and acting, Simpson had achieved success that most grade school, high school and college-aged students could not have dreamed possible.  But Simpson’s own dreams about representing Australia at the Olympic Games became something he was determined to chase. He returned to the Gold Coast in 2021 to achieve something that almost no one thought was possible.  

According to Simpson, “it was just a burning desire that never went away and I knew it was never gonna go away unless I let it breathe and train for real.”

Six days a week Simpson is faithfully in the waters of Griffith University pool by 6 am, training four hours in the pool with Michael Bohl’s elite squad with some of the world’s most decorated Olympic medallists including Emma McKeon, Kaylee McKeown, Mack Horton, Brendon Smith and World Champion Lani Pallister.  Smith reveals that Simpson is a hard worker and brings “high energy” to the group.

Simpson admits, “There’s not a rock star lane, and "Bohly" doesn’t cut me any slack. I was late twice during my first week of training with the team and I soon learned that being on time meant I needed to be at the pool early.”  Between workouts, he’s in the gym three times a week for 60 to 90 minutes each session. 

Affectionately known as "Bohly", the legendary coach has guided his athletes onto the medals podium at the last four Olympic Games.  His trophy-case swimmers include Olympic champions including Stephanie Rice who won three Olympic gold medals at the 2008 Beijing and Emma McKeon who won five Olympics gold across the 2016 Rio and the 2020 Tokyo Games. McKeon’s two Olympic campaigns netted 11 Olympic medals.

McKeon is the most decorated athlete of the Tokyo Olympics and also Australia's most decorated Olympian.  And she’s something else to Simpson - she’s his partner, the couple live together on the Gold Coast. 

According to Simpson, 26, “We met training together and we had a connection pretty quickly. She brings out the best in me every day. We have very similar lifestyles and it works.  When I play music, Emma is my only audience these days.  She gets all the shows.  We are living together and training together every day. “

"It's pretty easy," McKeon, 29, told the Brisbane Courier Mail about their relationships. "I mean, we've got the same schedule, we're tired at the same time, hungry at the same time, all that kind of stuff, so it makes living very easy."

Michael Bohl confirms “They both come in with great attitudes and have a great work ethic.”

Adds Bohl: "I think Cody’s teammates are learning about commitment seeing first-hand how hard he is training. Cody could be doing any number of things and making a lot of money, but watching his commitment is contagious.  

"He always wants to do more. He's always looking for the hard way and not taking the easy way. That's a good quality in him. If there is work that needs to be done he's always the first person to put up his hand. He’s good with people, he has a nice personality, and he's very professional.

"He's a leader within the group. If he sees a set on the board that’s really hard, he will break into song to get everyone laughing. Having someone like that in the group tends to lift the spirit of the group."  

Following a nearly 10-year break he qualified for the June 2021 Australian Olympic Trials that were held in Adelaide, South Australia. He missed qualifying for the Covid delayed Tokyo 2020 by 1.24 seconds. 

At the May 2022 Australian National Championships, Simpson finished third in the 100m butterfly and earned a spot on the Dolphins' team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK. He achieved one of his goals of representing Australia in international competition by swimming in the heats of the men’s 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays. He swam the 50m and 100m butterfly and advanced to the finals finishing in 5th place.

Said Simpson after the Birmingham experience: 

“My first Commonwealth Games done & dusted. For me, the very act of training morning and night and the thrill of racing is rewarding enough — but to walk away from my international swimming debut with a gold and silver medal is something beyond articulation for now.

"Thanks all. Ready to go back to work, keep improving on my individual events and perhaps explore new territory.  I’m honoured to represent Australia and represent all the kids who decide to walk steadfastly in the direction of their dreams, it’s never too late!”

There may be those who doubt him or question whether his goal is a realistic one, but his support team is just as dedicated to the goal as Simpson is. Simpson is a man on a mission, he’s a swimmer with a plan and most plans designed by dedicated swimmers and overseen by experienced swim coaches have a reasonable chance of success. 

“Cody is a student of the sport and he is getting faster," Bohl said.  "He’s close and getting closer, but he’s still got a bit of a gap that he has to get past to break through onto the team racing in Paris.”