Aussie Singer Cody Simpson Qualifies for Olympics Trials as a Swimmer

"World-renowned Australian singer and newly-returned swimmer Cody Simpson has announced his achievement of a lifelong goal: qualifying for the Australian Olympic Trials," reports the website SwimSwam.

"The 23-year-old made the cut by swimming the 100m butterfly in 54.9 seconds, easily beating past the qualifying benchmark of 56.87," writes the Daily Mail.

"I'd love to share this personal milestone and let you in on my current journey as an athlete that I've kept relatively low key until now," he wrote on Instagram on Sunday.

"I have had the chance to experience so much as a musician from touring in arenas around the world, releasing top 10 albums, playing a leading man on Broadway, publishing a work of poetry, travelling with and speaking at the United Nations on environmental and oceanic matters and much more.

"For years I had been fuelled by the silent fire in my stomach of returning to my first love, the sport of swimming, with the idea that 2020 would be my year to have a crack at training again," he said.

Simpson's coach Brett Hawke wrote on Instagram (reports SwimSwam) "that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he and Simpson have been restricted to training at local Californian country clubs and mostly in short course yards. The cut for Simpson is a significant milestone in his return to the sport and he will now have the chance to contest the event at the 2021 Australian Swimming Trials next June."

Simpson began his singing career as a teenager in 2009 by posting cover versions of pop songs on YouTube. He released his hit first single "iYiYi" in 2010 and his first album "Paradise" (of three) in 2012. More recently he released several Eps. He appeared on Broadway in "Anastasia" in 2018-2019. He also has had a highly public personal life having dated Gigi Hadid (2013-2015) and Miley Cyrus (2019-2020).

Earlier this month he released two new songs: a new single "Higher Forever," along with a Holiday track titled "Christmas Dreaming."

"A son of two swimmers, Simpson excelled in the sport from a young age. Beginning to compete at age 10, by 2012 he had won gold medals in the 100 butterfly and 200 IM at the Queensland Swimming Championships," adds SwimSwam.

He very publicly split from Cyrus in August, writes the Daily Mail. He "recently unfollowed the 'Hannah Montana' star on Instagram, despite her saying the pair were still friends after their intense relationship fizzled out."

"We are just deciding who we wanna be in our lives, what we wanna do, and so don't make it some drama story if next week we're hanging out, getting pizza," Miley said during a recent Instagram Live broadcast.

"We've been friends for 10 years and we're going to continue to be friends, so just don't make it something that it is not."

Check out these pics from Simpson's Instagram: