Cody Simpson is swapping his music career for swimming and set to compete in the Commonwealth Games

With large audiences watching and fans chanting his name, it brought him back to the heart of his music as he regularly performed to crowds of thousands and appeared on live television.

“My experience was that I had to get up and do things in front of lots and lots of people where I cared about the outcome,” Simpson says. “I knew better how to deal with that than let it ruin me in that moment, I suppose.”

It’s been almost three years since Simpson shifted his focus away from his music and towards competitive swimming.

“I wasn’t really into it, we weren’t careful about trying to build slowly,” Simpson tells CNN Sport. “My trainer made me do things that I definitely wasn’t ready to do at the time I did them, but I just loved that grind.

“It put me on a path of rapid improvement because I just had to learn to deal with it — whether that was throwing up at least twice a week for the first six months, or just adjusting to what I was feeling.” body wanted to give through.”

Since returning to swimming, Simpson’s goal has been to secure a place on the Australian team for the Paris Olympics, but he is now gearing up to compete in his first international competition at the Commonwealth Games, with his 50m dash in Birmingham, England, butterfly races scheduled for Friday.

‘First love’

The brutal workout schedule and the hours he spent staring at the bottom of a pool seem a far cry from Simpson’s life as a pop star, which began when he started covering songs and videos on YouTube as a 12-year-old to post.

As his music took off and his online following grew, he was given “opportunities I couldn’t refuse” and within a year moved to the United States with his family.

Since then, he’s recorded four studio albums, played at venues around the world, worked with the likes of Justin Bieber and Flo Rida, dated high-profile celebrities — including Miley Cyrus and Gigi Hadid — appeared on Broadway, and appeared on television shows Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer Australia.

But during that turbulent time, Simpson’s desire to return to swimming never left him. He had competed at a high level as a junior in Australia and even started looking for teams to join when he first moved to the US.

“I think because I put it in a good place in my head, the desire to swim again has never faded,” he says. “The fire stayed burning gently inside me until I had to pick it up.”

Simpson, 25, was born into a family of swimmers to parents Brad and Angie, who both compete for Australia. He jokes that he could swim before he could walk and always envisioned a career in the pool before his music career took off sooner than expected.

“I think everyone has that moment in their life where they realize they have an ability for something or an affinity for something that they might not have for other things,” says Simpson, “and for me, that was swimming.” .

“It was my first love, the first thing I ever loved. And that hasn’t changed, I suppose, to this day.”

READ: Meet the Black women fighting for equality in swimming

‘Scratch the itch’

Simpson says his parents never pushed him to take up swimming and admits his mother, who has experienced the demanding nature of the sport firsthand, even tried to dissuade him from returning in 2019.

But in the end, the suction effect of the pool proved to be too strong.

“It was about not wanting to deal with any what-ifs in my life and not regretting it,” Simpson says, “and kind of owing it to myself to try to do those unfinished business, that I thought I had in the pool — this total untapped or unrealized potential that I thought I had.

“And just to scratch the itch, really — it got too much to take … I knew music would always be there for me, and I can tour and do all those things until I’m an old man, but you can only swim a certain number of years. I wanted to see what I can do.”

Among those who have supported Simpson since returning to the sport are Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe and 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps.

“Having people like that in my corner and being able to call them or write to them and ask them for things or advice is very special,” Simpson says, “mostly because they’re the guys I have on my wall and on.” my computer screen saver and things growing up – Ian is one of them and Michael is another too.

Being able to turn to Phelps for advice closes Simpson’s swimming trip: During his first trip to the United States, he had his father drive from New York to Baltimore to try and meet Phelps at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.

“We went around the time we thought he might train,” Simpson recalls, “and next thing he shows up.

“I had him sign like 20 bathing caps. My dad took a picture of us together and I met his coach. In the end, I actually got on board and did a few training sessions with the junior team.”

Simpson’s late entry into professional swimming makes him an anomaly in a sport where most elite athletes have trained and competed extensively from a young age. He hopes to show people that it’s possible to thrive in the pool without having trained rigorously during your teenage years.

And with a total of 17.4 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, he’s likely to draw more attention to the sport by documenting his swimming career on social media.

“I’d like to inspire more kids to get involved with this and show it’s cool,” says Simpson. “I love the sport, so if that’s all I’m ever going to do about swimming is try to get a few more eyeballs into it, then I feel like I’ve gotten some of my job done because I love it and.” i want more people to love it. “

Simpson is scheduled to compete in the 50m and 100m butterfly events at the Commonwealth Games; Reaching the finals at one of those events, he says, would be “very special”.

His music career is on hold for the time being, but continues to play an important role in his life. Late last year he used an easier week of training to record his fourth studio album, Cody Simpson, which was released in April.

“I play guitar all the time,” Simpson says, “which is one of the things that’s kind of cathartic at this point. It’s something I do to unwind and it’s really nice to have something like this outside of the pool that I love. “

He plans to return to music full-time once his love of swimming wanes — but not anytime soon.

“I’m going to keep writing and cultivating my guitar playing and all that stuff and definitely getting back into it after the swim,” Simpson says. “I think in the foreground what I’m doing in the pool now.”