Imagine a young singer-songwriter of global acclaim—someone like Justin Timberlake or Shawn Mendes. Except this star also happens to be an elite athlete with an Olympic dream.

It sounds like fiction. But this is the true story of Cody Simpson.

Superstardom within reach, Cody Simpson put his guitar down and traded Hollywood for the black line at the bottom of a pool with one singular goal in mind: to compete in the Olympics.

It's the story of a chlorine-soaked little kid who became a global star. He traveled the world, performed before massive crowds, modeled for luxury brands, even acted on Broadway and in movies and television.

But something was missing. Out of an instinct for survival, he proceeded to do what many would consider unthinkable. He walked away from all of it. He couldn’t shake the feeling of what might have been had he not forsaken the Speedo for the stage and decided to do something about it.

World-class competitive swimming is a sport in which the elite never dare to take more than a month off here and there. Not only did Cody return to this sport after a dormant decade, he quickly began to excel beyond any reasonable expectation, clocking world-class times in the 100-meter butterfly.

Today we dive into the deep end of the pool and plumb Cody’s story. We trace his arc as a musician, what he learned as a performer that now helps him as an athlete, the whys and hows behind his Olympic dream, and how you can achieve two massive and wildly different goals in a lifetime.

Note: This conversation was recorded back in May of 2023 on the cusp of Australia’s World Championship Trials. Alas, Cody narrowly missed qualifying for that team but is back in super-focused training.

I coaxed Cody into performing a song at the end which you are not going to want to miss, so be sure to stick around.

Enjoy!

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POPS with Craig Melvin