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AAP
AAP
Steve Larkin

Celebrity swimmer Simpson's last roll of Olympic dice

Cody Simpson is well aware of the challenge awaiting him to make Australia's Paris Games team. (Dave Hunt/AAP PHOTOS)

Cody Simpson has been called many things: pop star, heart-throb, Broadway actor and celebrity swimmer among them.

But his swim coach Michael Bohl says Simpson faces a stern challenge to be called an Olympian.

Simpson will compete in the 100m freestyle on Thursday at Australia's Olympic swimming trials in Brisbane, ahead of his 100m butterfly event on Saturday.

Bohl and the one-time global pop sensation know the magnitude of the task of earning selection for the Paris Olympics starting on July 26.

"He has got to swim PBs (personal bests) to get himself a, through to the final and b, on to the team," Bohl said on Wednesday.

"So it's a challenge but he's as ready as he is ever going to be.

"This is his last throw of the dice and we're hoping that he can get up and just get the best out of himself."

Simpson's mother Angie and father Brad both swam for Australia, at the 1987 Pan-Pacific Games and 1994 Commonwealth Games respectively.

A promising junior swimmer, Simpson, aged 12, won two gold medals at the Queensland state championships in 2009.

The same year, the singer-guitarist posted some songs on YouTube and was discovered by an American music manager.

His family moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and Simpson became a worldwide pop star who also appeared on Broadway and on numerous American television shows.

In 2020, he returned to the pool with an aim of making Australia's team for the Paris Olympics.

"Seems like yesterday it was 2020, getting back in the water raw and wildly unfit having not swum or competed since I was a little boy," the 27-year-old posted to his 5.1 million followers on Instagram this week.

"I've given everything I have morning and night in training to see what I can get out of myself; burnt every boat I could burn in the pursuit.

"I do all of this for the 12-year-old kid in me. He'd be so stoked to know everything that's happened."

Simpson made Australia's team for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

He won a gold medal as a heat swimmer in Australia's triumphant 4x100m freestyle relay, placed fifth in the 100m butterfly final and reached the semis in the 50m 'fly.

"What he did making the Commonwealth Games team is what he set out to achieve, he wanted to make an Australian team," Bohl said.

"Not that he doesn't want to make this (Olympic) one, he desperately wants to make this.

"But making the Australian (Commonwealth Games) team was a win for him.

"Being out of the sport for a long number of years and coming back and getting in is just testament to his willpower and his discipline, his determination."

Bohl said reality was in the Australian rankings which put Simpson eighth in the 100m freestyle and third in the 100m 'fly.

"For him to make this team it's going to be a huge swim," Bohl said.

"It's possible. But it's expected that it's going to be a challenge for him to do."

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