Cody Simpson's Paris shot fails, 'exciting projects' flagged

Pop star Cody Simpson has fallen short in his bid to become an Olympic swimmer, failing in his final chance to grab a spot on the Australian team for Paris 2024.

He then revealed he had “exciting projects” in the works ahead of a return to the entertainment industry.

The men’s 100m butterfly final on Saturday night stood as Simpson’s only remaining chance to land on the Dolphins team for the Paris Games, but the chart-topping sensation finished fifth.

The 27-year-old also failed to hit Swimming Australia’s Olympic qualification time, clocking 51.79 seconds.

Australian record holder Matt Temple was the only one to qualify in the men’s 100m butterfly, which he did by winning the race with a time of 51.15.

“I did what I could do, and that’s all you can do,” Simpson told reporters.

“I’ve come a lot further in the last four years than perhaps I could have bargained for, starting from zero and trying to see how far I could get in half or a third of the time that everybody else has been training, just to do right by that kid in me that gave it up to go and pursue something else, which I had an incredible journey.

“I wanted to come into these last four years and just have a really good go.”

Simpson was an accomplished swimmer as a kid but gave up the sport to chase his music dream.

After a decade away from the sport he returned in 2019.

“The discipline and resilience and perseverance that swimming has again instilled in me is something that I’m really excited to implement in my future endeavours because it’s just helped me grow so much,” Simpson said.

“I can’t wait to take that back into music and entertainment and see what I can do.

“I’ve got some exciting projects lined up for after this that I was going to go back to regardless of how this week went.”

Simpson, the partner of swimming champion Emma McKeon, Australia’s most decorated Olympian, will always be able to have pride in knowing he represented Australia in the pool.

He also won a gold medal on the Dolphins team, having been a member of the triumphant men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

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