Cody Simpson finds swimming competitively against his idols "surreal".
The 24-year-old singer was a junior champion and returned to the sport nine months ago in a bid to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics this year or Paris in 2024 and admitted he had to try hard not to be psyched out by the fact he was lining up against the likes of Kyle Chalmers, Cate Campbell and Ariarne Titmus at the 50m fly at the Australian Swimming Championships over the weekend.
Cody said: “It’s amazing, just to be around guys that I’ve watched race over the last five or 10 years when I haven’t been in, just keeping up as a swimming fan myself. Now to be two lanes over from one of them, it’s surreal.
“Just trying to shoot the shit before it and not get in my head too much... the fact that guys I’m racing I’ve looked up to for a long time. I’m just glad to be here and be in the mix a few months before June. I’m excited to see what happens with some more training under my belt.”
The 'Pretty Brown Eyes' hitmaker finished ninth out of 10 swimmers in Sunday's (18.04.21) final but wasn't disappointed with his performance because he's still felling "rusty".
He told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper: “I’m still trying to figure out how to put it all together, still a little rusty out of quarantine. I wasn’t sure if I was going to race this week but figured I’d do the 50m just to start swinging the arms over and see how it goes. I was happy to make a final in my first week back. That’s good enough for me at the moment.
“To make an open final in the first go around is pretty cool, I’ll keep improving as we go. There’s a long way to go but I’ve come a long way in a short amount of time.”
Cody understands his fame will attract more attention to the sport, but he thinks that's a good thing.
He said: "I knew there would be a certain amount of people that otherwise wouldn’t have watched the sport that may do now because they have followed me in other endeavours and stuff like that.
“Me, just being a lifelong swimmer and fan of swimming, if I can bring more eyeballs to the sport, if that’s all I do in the next three or four years, that’s good enough for me. It’s my favourite sport and it deserves more global recognition. The more people and personalities involved, it can only help with that.”
