‘Blew me away’: Legend Grant Hackett’s scary Cody Simpson prediction

Swimming legend Grant Hackett has seen something “astonishing” behind the scenes with Cody Simpson after a frank exchange.

Aussie swimming legend Grant Hackett has seen enough behind the scenes with Aussie star Cody Simpson to predict he will be swimming at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The freak talent in and out of the pool will line up for the Australian Olympic swimming trials having become the story in Australian swimming this year, helped by recently showing off his insane new physique, despite his enormous challenge to sneak onto the team for the Tokyo Games, beginning July 23.

Hackett says he has seen Simpson chucking up in bins following training sessions and “killing himself” to find every microsecond of improvement.

The triple Olympic champion says he has been “blown away” by the 24-year-old since his decision to commit to swimming last year after more than 10 years away from the pool.

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 event on the planet.

A talented swimmer in his teenage years with state titles to his resume, Simpson changed lanes to become a musical sensation, collaborating with the likes of Ziggy Marley and Flo Rida and Justin Bieber.

Cody Simpson is not doing this for fun.

Hackett admits he is stunned by Simpson’s progress and commitment to swimming having watched him as a childhood swimming talent through their junior swimming club in Queensland.

Hackett is one of Simpson’s top mentors and will be supporting him all the way alongside Ian Thorpe and even American swimming idol Michael Phelps.

“I spoke to him at the start of the process, just to see if he was really committed, and this guy was 100 per cent serious,” Hackett said.

“It blew me away. I’ve known Cody for a very, very long time.

Cody Simpson is turning heads.

“It was quite astonishing to think he’d had this really established career in a completely different field, but he never lost the desire to go to the Olympics.”

He says there is no doubt about Simpson’s hunger to push himself for the next three years leading up to the Paris Games.

Speaking as an Amazon commentator for the launch of the docuseries Head Above Water, Hackett said he had an honest conversation with Simpson last year and was left convinced the music talent is in for the long haul.

“I was pretty frank with him and it was just his general demeanour towards it and the hunger and desire that came through and I was quite blown away by that,” he said.

“He was dead set committed. I was like ‘wow’. He’s fully committed. He’d clearly thought this through with a lot of detail.

Cody Simpson is yet to find something he is not good at.

Cody Simpson is two weeks away from his first moment of truth.

“I’ve seen video tapes of him chucking up in the bin. He does that quite regularly, so the guy is killing himself in the water to get the most out. He’s just uncompromising about what it’s going to take and I have a lot of respect for that.”

Success could come even sooner than that if he can produce an upset and qualify for the Games when he competes in the 100m butterfly and the 50m freestyle at the trials in Adelaide, beginning June 12.

Hackett, however, points out that anything less than complete dedication would end Simpson’s swimming career on the spot.

“Swimming is a completely unforgiving sport,” he said.

“If you don’t do the work you’re going to get exposed. There is nowhere to hide.”

He predicts Simpson is one to watch for Paris.

“I think he’ll be right there with the top guys to be honest. If he keeps the degree of focus that he’s having right now he’ll be right there with our best athletes.”

The Head Above Water series also features Ian Thorpe, Bronte Campbell and Kyle Chalmers.

— The Australian Swimming Trials live and exclusively on Amazon Prime Video from June 12-17.