Swimming news: How Cody Simpson can help fellow Aussie swimmers win huge award

Two of Australia’s best swimmers in Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan are vying for the biggest prize in world swimming, but their hopes may lie in the hands of a pop star. Here’s how.

Two of Australia‘s golden girls of the pool have been short-listed for the biggest individual prize in world swimming – but they may need a helping hand from a certain pop star teammate to beat their formidable opponents.

Aussie backstroker Kaylee McKeown and freestyle sensation Mollie O’Callaghan have been named by World Aquatics among the four finalists for female world swimmer of the year.

The winner of the prestigious award will be announced at next month’s world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, and while both Aussies have a great shot at the title, they face some big hurdles.

Not only are they up against two giants of the sport – American legend Katie Ledecky and Canadian teenage sensation Summer McIntosh – but the unusual voting system has thrown a spanner in the works.

Kaylee McKeown after breaking a world record. Picture: Delly Carr (Swimming NSW)

The winners will be decided by votes from former swimmers, technical officials, sports leaders, members of the media plus a public poll – held on Instagram – over a 24 hour window next week

And that could make it or break it for the Aussies – because they have less followers on their social media accounts.

The best Male and Female Aquatics Athletes of 2022 will be crowned👑 at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka!

And there's still time to decide who they will be!

Each vote will count 🤩 You just need to go to our Instagram stories @world_aquatics and select your favourite… pic.twitter.com/2AkXlhOpRu

— World Aquatics (@WorldAquatics) June 12, 2023

McKeown – who won world long-course, short-course and Commonwealth Games gold medals last year, has 115,000 followers on her Instagram account while newly crowned world champion Mollie O’Callaghan has just over 22,000.

Summer McIntosh is wedged between the two Aussies – with 68,000 – but the big danger is Ledecky, who has them all covered with an astonishing 578,000 followers.

If it becomes a popularity contest, Ledecky looks to have a big advantage – but the two Dolphins do have an ace up their sleeve.

Their teammate Cody Simpson has more than 5.1 million followers, the most of any swimmer on the planet – so if he endorses their bid, that could swing things around.

There was no luck for the Aussie men, however, – with world champions Zac Stubblety-Cook and Elijah Winnington both snubbed by the selectors.

Instead, the four finalists in the men’s division were Romania teenage sprint king David Popovici, Frenchman Leon Marchard, Hungary’s Kristof Milak, and Italy’s Thomas Ceccon.

Cody Simpson of Team Australia. Picture: Getty Images

WHY CODY SIMPSON IS GREAT FOR SWIMMING

He may not have as many medals as his superstar girlfriend Emma McKeon - or any of the big guns in the Australian swim team for that matter - but when it comes to attracting new eyeballs to the sport, Cody Simpson is the gold medal standard every swimmer looks up to.

The global pop star’s incredible rise to the Australian swim team sounds like a Hollywood script so it’s probably no surprise that he’s come out lengths clear in a new poll charting the sport’s most popular stars.

Compiled and published by US swimming website SwimSwam, Simpson was the runaway winner of a social media study into which active swimmer has the most Instagram followers.

Simpson has a whopping 5 million followers, more than six times the second-best swimmer, Yusra Mardini.

The stats which show Cody Simpson’s popularity.

She’s the inspiring Syrian refugee, who fled the bloody civil war in homeland then had to swim across the Aegean Sea, between Turkey and Greece, after the overcrowded little dinghy they were sailing on almost sank.

Now based in Germany, Mardini represented the Refugee Team at the Rop and Tokyo Olympics, the 2016 and 2021 Olympics. She has 804,000 followers.

American swimming alpha-male Caeleb Dressel was third, with 645,000 followers, with British breaststroker Adam Peaty (610,000) fourth and US legend Katie Ledecky (579,000) rounding out the top five.

Swimming’s GOAT Michael Phelps, who was not included on the lost because he’s retired, has 3.9 million follower, well behind Simpson, who was the only active Australian swimmer in the top 15, but down the list compared to other Aussie sports stars.

Basketballer Ben Simmons (7.1 million) and Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo (8.1 million) both have millions more followers than Simpson, while Australia’s most followed athlete is cricketer David Warner (9.9 million).

The most followed person in the world is Portuguese soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo (588 million).

Originally published as Swimming news: How Cody Simpson can help fellow Aussie swimmers win huge award