Moment Cody Simpson knew he had to ditch music career

Cody Simpson could be partying with celebrity mates in LA but instead, one moment five years ago convinced him to drop the guitar.

All eyes will be on Cody Simpson at next month’s Olympic swimming trials and you have to go back five years to understand why.

The internationally-famous pop star and ex-boyfriend of Gigi Hadid and Miley Cyrus has ditched his guitar and A-list mates in Los Angeles to pursue his ambition of one day competing at the biggest sporting smorgasbord on the planet.

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A talented swimmer in his teenage years with state titles to his resume, Simpson changed lanes to become a musical sensation when his YouTube videos took him to America — and the heights of superstardom.

Simpson collaborated with the likes of Ziggy Marley and Flo Rida and even supported a touring Justin Bieber, but late last year revealed he’d hit pause on all of that to give himself a chance at representing Australia in the pool.

The burning desire to rekindle his childhood love was stoked at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Simpson was in Brazil on a corporate gig and spent plenty of time on the pooldeck watching people he’d competed against strut their stuff in the hope of standing on the podium.

It was the moment he knew he wanted to slap on the Speedos again one day.

“There were multiple guys there I used to train with and compete against. I remember thinking, ‘I could have been here’. That’s what it was,” Simpson told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I talked to (swim coach) Denis (Cotterell) at the Games. He always told me I’d swim again one day.

“Since Rio, I don’t think there was a week that went by when I didn’t think about it. That’s five years ago now. Then 2020 came and I had decided I would start training again and dedicate four years of my life to it.”

Simpson and Miley Cyrus were an item for a while.

They were a high-profile couple in the world of American celebrities.

Simpson’s mum Angela remembers the conversation she had with her son a couple of years ago where he made it clear swimming again was more than just a pipe dream.

“Cody said to me, ‘Mum, it’s just this burning desire that’s never gone away, to see what I can do with it’,” she told the Courier Mail. “‘It’s about seeing something through that I never finished, and it’s about having a crack. I want to give it a red hot go, and if it goes nowhere, fair enough, but if I don’t do it now I’ll never do it.

“‘I’ll always have music, but there’s a limited time for swimming and I just want to be able to, win or lose, look back one day and say, well, at least I gave it my best shot’.”

Teaming up with coach Brett Hawke, Simpson started out with an eye on the long-term, wanting to qualify for the 2024 Games in Paris. But he stunned everyone last year by swimming quick enough in the 100m butterfly to score a gig at next month’s Australian Olympic trials — a remarkable achievement considering he’d been out of the sport for so long, and had to adopt some less-than-glamorous training methods in America because of COVID-19.

Simpson has kept his social media followers in the loop with regular updates about his progress, and returned home for his first meet Down Under at the Australian Swimming Championships in April.

It was there the 24-year-old showed off a seriously impressive rig and while training at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre last month, Simpson was spotted getting friendly with Olympian Emily Seebohm, who won gold at both the Beijing and London Games.

“He’s had this amazing opportunity with his singing and for him to realise that he wants to do this other thing that he’s really loved doing since he was young is a really brave thing to do,” Seebohm told The Courier Mail.

Now, everyone is waiting to see whether Simpson makes a big enough splash at Olympic trials in June to book his plane ticket to Tokyo.

Now it’s time for a different challenge.

Simpson is looking fighting fit.

Originally published as Moment Cody Simpson knew he had to ditch music career