Cody Simpson, Pop Star, Wants to Be Cody Simpson, Olympian

Australia’s princeling of pop was holed up in a hotel in the summer of 2019, preparing for his country’s inaugural season of the “The Masked Singer,” when he started following the world swimming championships. As he watched records fall, Cody Simpson soon found himself focused on one thought:

Why am I not there?

Long before he was a singing sensation with a Barry Gibb falsetto and a huge social-media following, before he became a heartthrob with a top-10 hit, his own fashion doll and a leading role on Broadway, Simpson, 24, was a record-setting schoolboy swimmer in his native Queensland.

Transfixed by the races, he decided it wasn’t too late to resurrect his own Olympic dream when he realized that he was five months younger than the American star Caeleb Dressel, who had just broken a world record held by Simpson’s childhood idol, Michael Phelps.

“I stopped drinking that night and started finding pools the next day,” Simpson said.

Three months later, Simpson would be unveiled as the robot who won “The Masked Singer.” Another year would pass before he made his surprise swimming reveal.

Last month, more than a decade after his previous long-course race, Simpson surpassed the qualifying standard for the Australian Olympic trials in the 100-meter butterfly. He beat the required time at a meet in San Diego organized by David Marsh, a coach with whom Simpson occasionally trains. It was his second competitive outing after less than six months of consistent training, and his second race of the day. He had completed the 200-meter freestyle less than an hour before.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/sports/olympics/cody-simpson-olympics.html