Cody Simpson Just Won a Gold Medal For Swimming
Australian singer Cody Simpson became a teen heartthrob in the 2010s thanks to his music career. But Simpson also juggles his career as a singer with being a competitive swimmer for his home country. Now, the singer is working hard to make his dreams come true.
Cody Simpson is a swimmer as well as a singer
Cody Simpson has been a swimmer since he was a child. Both his parents swam for Australia in the past, and he was carrying on the family legacy. When he was discovered for his singing videos as a child, his career obviously took a different path, as he grew up in the public eye and eventually entered relationships with the likes of Miley Cyrus and Gigi Hadid.
He ended up returning to the sport in the late 2010s, and has been hard at work in the pool. In July 2022, the singer took home a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Commonwealth Games, like the Olympics, occur every four years, and the event brings together athletes from over 70 countries that make up the British Commonwealth.
Cody Simpson won a gold medal for Australia at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Simpson earned a gold medal for the Australian men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. He also qualified for the 50m butterfly semi-finals.
Simpson is no stranger to the Commonwealth Games, though his last exposure to the quadrennial event was as a singer and not as a swimmer. In 2017, he performed at Buckingham Palace for the beginning of the Queen’s Baton Relay, which is the Commonwealth Games equivalent of the Olympic Torch. He took home his gold medal in his hometown of Gold Coast, Australia.
Simpson spoke about his transition from singer to swimmer in a 2021 interview with 60 Minutes Australia. Looking back on his career, he realized that swimming was a childhood dream that he never got to live out.
“A lot of people thought I was nuts, but not anyone that knew me from before and knew what my swimming was when I was growing up and stuff,” the Aussie singer said. “I started training around 9, 10 years old. It was only a year later that I was at my first school national championships winning every event that I was in. It was the first thing I really felt like I could be successful at, and have loved it ever since.”
“It was just a burning desire that never went away, and I knew it was never going to go away unless I let it breathe and allowed for some time and space for me to actually do it and train for real,” he added.
Simpson is hoping to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
He still has time for music
On top of all his time spent training, Simpson has still found time to make music.
In April 2022, he released his self-titled fourth album, and first in seven years. The project contained singles “Nice to Meet You” and “Let Go” as well as the Ben Harper collaboration “It’s a Dream.”
A butterfly specialist, Simpson found time away from training in April to release a fourth album, via Coast House Collective. The self-titled studio set contains singles “Nice to Meet You” and “Let Go” as well as the Ben Harper collaboration “It’s a Dream.”
