‘Left nothing to the unknown’: How pop star Cody Simpson shot to fame in the fast lane before making a huge switch

He went from rubbing shoulders with Hollywood A-listers before making a shock change in an aim for gold.

Five years ago, Cody Simpson bet it all.

He was on top of the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings as a YouTuber which launched a lucrative career as one of Australia’s most recognised singer-songwriters, working and performing with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Flo Rida.

The stage spotlight was swapped out for Olympic glory in the swimming pool in 2020.

It left fans spinning – why hang up the guitar for the goggles and Speedos, when you were already on top of the entertainment world?

Cody Simpson stunned his millions of fans when he announced he was swapping his career in the spotlight for a shot at Olympic swimming fame. But that dream has come to a conclusion following a bruising result at the 2024 Australian Swimming Trials. Picture: David Gray / AFP

Simpson (pictured in 2023) has announced he is stepping away from his Olympic swimming career, likely going back into showbiz. Picture: NewsWire /Brendan Beckett

A stint in the 2022 Commonwealth Games cemented his legacy as the dark horse for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

Unfortunately, that dream came crashing down at this month’s trials in Brisbane.

He finished fifth in the 100m butterfly final at the Australian trials and was just half a second short of Swimming Australia’s Olympic qualification time.

Now, Simpson is calling time on his renewed stint in the pool.

In a post to his 5.1 million followers on Instagram, Simpson announced his swimming journey was ending.

“I left nothing to the unknown these past 4 years and I can now rest knowing I put my pedal to the floor every day and covered every other little detail to take this as far it could go and it sure went a hell of a ways,” he wrote.

“All you can do is everything you can to take what you’ve been given as far as you can take it.

“You owe yourself the honour of cultivating your talents with as much fervour and intensity as you can.”

Simpson dated Miley Cyrus between 2019 and 2022 while he was still in the entertainment business. Picture: Instagram

Simpson spoke of how he was a “gangster” in training, meticulous in his preparation and “fearless” in competing “every step of the way”.

“I promise I will never stop trying to do special things with my life,” his post continued.

“Shoot for the moon … land among the stars. My shot has landed me in a constellation of stars otherwise known as that elusive club, the Australian Swim Team, forever. “Thank you swimming.”

How Simpson shot to Olympic fame

Simpson’s decision to return to professional swimming in 2020 left many stunned.

By this time, he’d published three studio albums, embarked on multiple headline tours and opened for Justin Bieber’s Believe Tour over 2012-13.

His family even moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to support their son’s musical career.

What people underestimated about Simpson, now 27, was he was just as talented in the water – if not more – as he was on the stage.

His parents Angie and Brad were both professional swimmers – competing at the 1987 Pan-Pacific Games and 1994 Commonwealth Games respectively.

Simpson himself had taken out gold medals in swimming competitions as a teenager, even moving into university-grade competitions shortly after stepping away from the spotlight in 2019.

Simpson competing in the Men’s 100m Butterfly Heats on day four of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Picture: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images

He was trained at the Miami Swimming Club on Queensland’s Gold Coast, scoring two gold medals at the 2009 Queensland Swimming Championships.

At this time, his YouTube videos of his singing were starting to garner attention, which launched his famed entertainment career.

In 2019 Simpson turned his attention back to the pool – joining the University of Southern Carolina’s Trojan Elite Swim Club in Los Angeles. He finished 24th out of 29 entrants.

A year later, he qualified for the Australian Olympic trials in the 100m butterfly.

His time for this qualified was 54.9s – just under the standard of 56.87.

Simpson spent months training with two-time Olympian Brett Hawke in preparation for his swimming comeback, with the former competitive swimmer revealing how far his pupil would need to go to compete in the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

“To be in the conversation at the Olympic trials final, you have to be 52 something, right?” Hawke said on his YouTube show in December 2020.

Cody Simpson (pictured in Flo Rida’s iYiYi official YouTube video) was becoming recognised for his YouTube videos around 2009, but at the time he also scored gold medals at the Queensland Swimming Championships that same year. Picture: Supplied / YouTube

Simpson (pictured in 2022) claimed relay gold and silver medals from the Commonwealth Games that year. Picture: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images

“So we have a couple of seconds to drop and then to be on the Olympic team, you have to be, you know, 51 seconds probably.”

On the show, Simpson reveals decorated ex-Olympian Michael Phelps was his hero growing up.

In an ironic twist, Phelps and even Aussie sporting legend Ian Thorpe would mentor Simpson on achieving his Olympic dream.

“I had him (Phelps) as my computer screen saver … his butterfly in Beijing, I was 11,” Simpson tells Hawke.

“And I think that when the Beijing Olympics were out there and that was my first year, I was at my first national championships and stuff like that.

“And so he was and is that figure to me in sports.

“It’s pretty awesome that I can kind of just text with him.”

Cody Simpson and his partner Emma McKeon Picture: Instagram

Simpson’s attempt at Tokyo did fall short – he finished in eighth place with a time of 52.94s.

But by 2022 he was selected for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, taking home gold and silver medals as a relay swimmer.

While he did not make the bid for Paris, Simpson said his return to the pool was one he couldn’t forget.

“It’s bittersweet. I did what I could do,” he told reporters after last Saturday’s relay.

“I’ve come a lot further in the last four years than I perhaps could have bargained for.”

“To have had the chance to swim for my country and make Australian teams, medal internationally and be a part of the men’s relay and swim for Australia is something not a lot of swimmers get to achieve or experience. I have had the privilege to do that.

“That’s something I’ll never forget and nobody will be able to take from me.”