Cody Simpson He qualified for the men's 100m butterfly final, making his Olympic dream come true. Australian Olympic Swimming Qualifiers Following Thursday's swim meet in Brisbane, the singer-turned-swimmer produced a strong swim in his speciality event on Saturday.
Simpson won the butterfly heat in 51.78 seconds, the fifth-fastest time in the final, behind Matt Temple (51.46). Simpson's time was slightly slower than his personal best of 51.67, but the pop star-turned-swimmer was almost certain to beat his personal best in the final to make the Olympic team.
The top two in the final will qualify for Paris, with national record holder Matt Temple expected to win, while Simpson will compete for second place against Sean Champion, Ben Armbruster and Kyle Chalmers.
Simpson is hoping to set another PR on Saturday night after being disappointing on Thursday night. After missing out on a spot in the final, Simpson won the B final in a PR of 48.67, which would have placed him sixth in the A final. The six fastest runners advance to the final. Olympic They will be used as part of the 4x100m relay team, meaning Simpson would have had a good chance of qualifying for the Olympics if he could have achieved his personal best when it mattered.
Despite her disappointing result in Thursday's heats, Simpson said it was a good warm-up for her favorite event, the 100 butterfly. “I thought it would be a little tough to get to the final in the 100 freestyle because there are a lot of strong competitors,” Simpson said.
“It was a good warm-up for the 100m butterfly. I've been training really hard for the last six months. Swimming is hard. You train for a long time for really little progress, sometimes infinitesimal progress. I'm just hitting a wall trying to get to the next level. And the faster you get, the harder it is to keep getting faster.”
After the preliminaries were broadcast, there was a big shocker. Cody Simpson swam the 100m freestyle B final in 48.67 seconds. If he had swum that time in the A final, he would have been selected for the Olympic team.
— Todd Balym (@balymt) June 13, 2024
Cody Simpson still has a chance to compete in the Paris Olympics
Simpson reached the 100m butterfly final, but his coach, Michael Ball, isn't too confident his protégé will make the national team. At the Australian Open Championships on the Gold Coast in April, Simpson was well below the pace needed to qualify for Paris. His coach says he has improved since then, but Simpson still needs a personal best time to make the final.
“He's got to perform at his personal best to get to the final and make the team,” Ball said Wednesday. “So it's a challenge, but he's the best prepared he's ever been. This is his final gamble and we're counting on him to turn up and do his best. It's going to be a big challenge for him to make this team. It's possible, but it's going to be a challenge for him.”
Simpson rose to fame as a music star at a young age, but put her singing career on hold in 2019 to pursue her dream of competing in the Olympics in 2024. And while the swimmer has done more than many thought possible by winning gold and silver relay medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, qualifying for the games seems like such a big leap.
In an ideal world, he would compete in Paris with a partner. Emma McKeonShe First woman in her 30s to qualify for the Australian swimming team Since Lisa Curry 1992. Already an Australian with 11 medals, she is the most ever to win an Australian medal, clocking 56.85 seconds in the 100m butterfly final on Monday to become the oldest woman to make the Olympic swimming team in more than 30 years.
McKeown said before the trials that this would be her last Olympics, as she doesn't intend to continue her swimming career beyond the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Her partner Simpson is unsure whether to continue chasing swimming glory after this year's Games, but the fact that he is highly unlikely to qualify for Paris has dashed their dreams of going all the way there together.
In an interview News Corp In April, the musician-turned-swimmer said he hoped Paris would be a “fairy tale ending” to his swimming journey, and also revealed that his next steps with McKeon would be decided after Paris. “I've purposely put brick walls on either side of it, knowing that I'll deal with it when the time comes,” he said.
“But I've never been in life where I didn't know what was going to happen next. Emma has never lived a life without swimming. She knows what it's like, but she's never done it, so I'm excited for her to pursue her other interests and have the time to do that, because she didn't have that time as a child.”
Cody Simpson is proud of his achievements in the pool
Simpson's mother, Angie, and father, Brad, swam for Australia at the 1987 Pan Pacific Games and the 1994 Commonwealth Games, respectively. Simpson himself was always a promising junior swimmer, winning two gold medals at the Queensland State Championships in 2009, aged 12. That same year, the singer-guitarist posted a song on YouTube and was discovered by an American music manager.
The following year, the family changed their lives and moved to Los Angeles, where Simpson became an international pop star and also appeared on Broadway and in numerous American television shows.
But in 2020, Simpson put his singing and acting career on hold to return to competitive swimming with the aim of representing his country. Regardless of the outcome of this week's trials, Simpson says he is proud of what he has achieved and has given it his all to try to qualify for the Olympics.
“2020 seems like yesterday as I haven't swam or competed since I was a young child and I found myself back in the water extremely unwell,” the 27-year-old wrote on Instagram. “Looking back at how this all played out, it makes no sense to me. I've been working hard, morning and night, training, trying to see what I'm capable of, burning everything I could in that pursuit.”
“The physical and mental growth swimming has brought me has been immeasurable, as have all the dreams I have achieved swimming to represent Australia. I have given it my all over the last six months and am really looking forward to seeing how much I can do in this race. Thank you to everyone who has supported my race. I am doing all of this just for the 12-year-old in me, who will be so thrilled when he finds out everything that has happened – he is me, so I know he will! See you on the other side!”
Related:
Cody Simpson's Commonwealth gold medal a career highlight
Simpson was selected for Australia's team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she won gold as a qualifier in Australia's winning 4x100m freestyle relay, placed fifth in the 100m butterfly final and reached the semi-finals of the 50m butterfly. Ball says these results are far beyond what she had set out to achieve, so as she moves on to the next stage of her life she can be satisfied that she has given her all to her swimming career.
“Making the Commonwealth Games team is something he's been aiming for. He's wanted to be on the Australian team,” Ball said. “It's not that he doesn't want to be on this (Olympic) team. He wants to be on this team badly.”
“But being selected for the Australian (Commonwealth Games) team was a victory for him. To come back and take part after so many years away from the sport is testament to his willpower, discipline and determination.”
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