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Without his guitar but with goggles and a cap, popstar Cody Simpson struck a chord when he swept a state title with a swift time in Brisbane on Monday night, prompting talk of his Olympic Games pursuit being alive and well.
It’s left many wondering just how much of a chance the chart-topping sensation has of making the cut for Paris 2024.
Simpson clinched the 100m butterfly title at the Queensland Swimming Championships and did so in 51.67 seconds, equalling the Olympic qualifying time as he slashed 0.11 of a second from his personal best in his pet event.
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But Simpson, who will turn 26 in January, fell short of Swimming Australia’s Olympic qualifying time of 51.17. Australia is a proud and amazingly successful swimming nation, so much so that the standards laid out by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are not quite speedy enough for Swimming Australia’s top officials.
Half a second and a bunch of more highly fancied swimmers are standing between Simpson and his realisation of a dream.
Matt Temple ripped a 50.25 to break the Australian 100m butterfly record in Japan last week. Shaun Champion’s best is 51.54. Kyle Chalmers may not want to go for the butterfly — it’s anyone’s guess — but the alpha male’s best is 51.61. And Jesse Coleman’s top time, 51.66, is also quicker than Simpson’s. The Gold Coast product couldn’t quite keep pace with those four men at the Australian World Championship Trials in June, touching the wall fifth.
Simpson must finish in the top two of the 100m butterfly final at June’s Australian Olympic Trials, and match or better the Australian Olympic qualifying time, if he is to snare a ticket to Paris.
While Simpson could, at a stretch, be considered a feasible chance to make the team in the 100m butterfly, it will be almost impossible for the gifted swimmer to snag a spot as an individual freestyler.
His 100m freestyle best, the 48.99 he chalked up at the Athens leg of the World Cup in October, is slower than the top times of Cameron McEvoy (47.04), Chalmers (47.08), Flynn Southam (47.77), Jack Cartwright (47.84), Temple (48.07), Kai Taylor (48.41), Zac Cincerti (48.51), Alex Graham (48.65) and Dylan Andrea (48.94). Simpson was off the pace in the 100m freestyle at the Australian World Championship Trials, coming home seventh.
He may not have given up hope of cracking the 4x100m freestyle relay team, but the depth of Australian sprinting is so incredible that it’s hard to see him surviving the squeeze. Perhaps being picked as one of six relay swimmers and having a dip in the heats shapes as his best chance of appearing at the Olympics.
Under the guidance of renowned coach Michael Bohl at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus, Simpson is grinding away with his sights set on the Australian Olympic Trials in seven months’ time.
He will touch down at Brisbane Aquatic Centre and swim fast. What many are wondering is whether he will be fast enough.
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