Simpson no circus act no matter what’s next
REGARDLESS of whether the Australian selectors pick him for his first national team on Sunday or not, Cody Simpson has already done enough to prove he’s no circus act.
Kyle Chalmers may be hating all the extra media attention the former pop star has been getting since returning to the sport, but Australian swimming insiders are singing a different tune.
For a sport that desperately needs to attract more eyeballs and retain more talent, the notion of having Miley Cyrus’ former lover wearing Australia’s green and gold trunks is a marketing dream.
But to the brains trust involved in the daily running of Australia’s highperformance swim programs, they have spotted something far more important that could turn out to be Simpson’s greatest legacy.
Where detractors see a publicityhungry star, Simpson’s growing number of supporters see a dedicated athlete who has the potential to revolutionise the way Australian kids think about swimming because he’s doing something that everyone else thought was impossible.
“What he‘s done has just blown me away,” Aussie Olympic swimming legend Grant Hackett told News Corp.
“It’s not an easy sport but he’s making it look much easier than what it is.
“Every now and then, you get a freak show. You get a Leisel Jones who makes an Olympics at 15, you get an Ian Thorpe who goes a 3:49 for 400 metres freestyle at 14 years of age.
“And then you get Cody Simpson, who is just another freak because he’s done something that only 0.00001 per cent of people can do.”
Make no mistake about it: for anyone to be selected on the Australian swim team aged in their mid 20s, after a decade away from the sport in show business, is an unfathomable achievement that really should be shouted from the rafters.
Every year, thousands of Australian teenagers quit competitive swimming because they’re convinced they’ve reached the end of the road and there’s no future for them.
Now, all of a sudden, Simpson is changing that premise by making swimming cool again with a fresh approach and fresh perspective that even the experts are raving about.