‘I don’t understand’: Cate Campbell in awe of Cody Simpson

Cody Simpson made waves at the Australian swimming trials last week, and now an established star has spoken out about his comeback.

Cody Simpson’s talent just does not compare to the average person.

The pop star made a big splash at the Australian swimming trials in Adelaide last week, setting personal best times in his events and surpassing even his own expectations to make the final of the 100m butterfly.

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Now an established Australian swimming star has spoken out about Simpson’s comeback to the sport, complaining that the 24-year-old’s overflowing talent simply isn’t fair.

“I have so much respect for Cody Simpson. What he has done is absolutely incredible,” sprint freestyler Cate Campbell told Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa on Tuesday.

“Cody’s been training for just over a year. He stopped swimming when he was 13,” she said.

“And it’s also a little beacon of hope for any swimmers who quit during their high school years and thought: ‘Nah, this is too hard’, but still have that little passion.”

Campbell, who became just the third Australian swimmer to qualify for four Olympic Games, said it was beyond belief that Simpson decided to ditch his pop star lifestyle for the tough life slogging it up and down the pool in training.

“He took like an eight, nine-year break, became a bona fide superstar — playing for thousands of people, dating Miley Cyrus — and then for some reason decides to come back!” she laughed.

“Like, I just don’t understand. If I had any other talent, I’d probably be doing that!

“He’s top eight in Australia and it’s kind of like a little snub to everyone who’s been training for the past eight years of their life: ‘What have you been doing, you should have taken a big break and then come back!’”.

Cody Simpson surprised even himself by making the final of the 100m butterfly at the Australian swimming trials. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

A state champion as a junior, Simpson gave up swimming to pursue a career in music but the love of the pool never left and he re-committed to the sport last year, vowing to give qualifying for the Olympics a serious crack.

He didn’t have eyes on Tokyo at first, though. The Queenslander was looking long-term at the 2024 Games in Paris, but stunned everyone — including himself — by swimming fast enough late last year to earn himself a berth at this year’s Olympic trials in Adelaide.

Simpson has been training with former Aussie Olympian Brett Hawke in the United States, and has sought advice from swimming legends Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps in a bid to make his dreams a reality.

“For the last 10 years, I don’t think there was a week or a day that went by that I didn’t still think about swimming or try and figure out when I was going to swim again,” Simpson said in the new Amazon Prime documentary series Head Above Water, which was released earlier this month.

“I just knew that I wasn’t done with it. That fire never died in me.

“It was really interesting, going about my business — touring, releasing music and being so wrapped up in this other life and still being like, ‘Is there a pool in this city?’

“It’s hard to put a gauge on or have an expectation when something that doesn’t really have a rule book or a playbook and has never been done before. No one’s really ever stopped swimming at 13 and come back at 24.

“This is absolutely not like a random thing at all. This was nothing that was brought upon by Covid or out of boredom whatsoever. This has been my plan the whole time.”

Cate Campbell has been blown away with how quickly Cody Simpson has improved in the pool. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

Campbell also issued a warning to the swimming world, declaring that middle-distance star Ariarne Titmus is extremely well-placed to take on American great Katie Ledecky in Tokyo.

The 20-year-old broke three Australian records in the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle at the swimming trials and came extremely close to Ledecky’s sizzling world record in the 400m to put the Olympic champion on notice.

“To be honest, she is such an impressive young woman and she eats pressure for breakfast,” Campbell declared.

“She just loves it (pressure). She’s one of those outgoing, super confident people who has complete faith in her ability and complete trust in her team.

“She is just wearing it so well and she never lets success go to her head. She never rests on her laurels. It’s always about getting better and being better.

“And we’ve just seen constant improvement her in the last couple of years and I think we’re in for a real treat from her.

“She’s up against Katie Ledecky from America — who is probably one of the best freestylers of all time — and to have a little young Australian really push her, they’ll be going toe-to-toe.”