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Aussie pop sensation-turned swimmer Cody Simpson has given his strongest indication yet he will look to extend his swimming career beyond the Paris Olympics.
Simpson this week bombed in his pet event, the 100m butterfly at the Australian Swimming Championships, finishing eighth – two seconds behind winner Matthew Temple, and 1.6 seconds slower than his personal best.
The 28-year-old insisted that talk the result was a hit to his Olympic preparation was “ridiculous”.
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“Absolutely not – I think those headlines are ridiculous, because the Paris Olympic trials are in 15 months and we are in heavy training at the moment and everyone’s at different stages of their preparation,” he told Wide World of Sports.
“Some people rest for meets like this… I don’t know why they call it the Australian Championships – It’s more of a Grand Prix. Our actual nationals are in two months, so I think there was a lot of media coverage on it. I didn’t really care to be honest about what people were saying because I’ve been in super hard training and my coach’s plan [wasn’t] to have me fresh and ready to race this week.
“We’re still preparing for the meet in two months’ time. So yeah, it wasn’t too bad.”
In the same race, fellow Olympians Kyle Chalmers and David Morgan finished fourth and seventh respectively.
Simpson said he will continue to push for Paris selection in both the 100m butterfly and in the 4x100m relay squad.
Simpson left the Birmingham Commonwealth games with a gold and a silver medal, for competing in the heats of both the 4×100 freestyle, and also the 4x100m medley relay.
He finished fifth in the solo butterfly event. Simpson spent 10 years as a musician before announcing on Instagram in late 2020 that he would be making the switch, confirming he had qualified for trials for the Tokyo games.
He had at the time only recently split from fellow pop star Miley Cyrus, but had spent the previous five months in training.
He missed qualification for Tokyo, and then indicated Paris would likely be the only Olympics he chases, before a potential return to music.
But Simpson said he hasn’t given retirement from swimming any further thought, and hasn’t ruled out making a charge for the LA games in 2028.
Simpson reveals Olympic swimming bid
“I’ll make that decision when it occurs,” he said.
“I think regardless of whether I make the Olympic team next year or not, I always look back on what I’m doing in swimming, what I have been able to achieve as opposed to what I haven’t been able to achieve.
“I’ve absolutely loved [swimming], I plan on continuing to pursue it certainly through Paris. I haven’t decided what lies beyond that in terms of swimming or whether I’ll continue or whether I’ll go back.
“Eventually I’m going back to playing music, it was always my plan. Originally I said I’d only swim for four years, but I’m loving it so much that may drag on. I can’t say yet.”
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