Cody Simpson‘s bid to become an Olympian will boil down to how he fares in the 100m butterfly, his pet event, after he failed to reach the 100m freestyle final at Australia’s Paris 2024 trials on Thursday.
The popstar-turned-swimmer is now focused solely on Saturday’s 100m butterfly after he posted the 10th-fastest time of the 100m freestyle heats at Brisbane Aquatic Centre.
Olympic and world champion Kyle Chalmers qualified with the fastest time, stopping the clock at 47.15 seconds.
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Simpson registered 49.04, which is 0.05 of a second outside his personal best, and the eighth-fastest qualifier, Max Giuliani, scraped into the final with a time of 48.90.
“It’s a stacked field in the 100 free so I knew it was going to be a bit iffy trying to get into that final,” Simpson told reporters.
Watch Australia’s Paris 2024 swimming trials on Nine and 9Now.
“It’s a good warm-up for the 100 fly.”
Simpson is tasked with finishing in the top two of the 100m butterfly final and hitting Swimming Australia’s Olympic qualification time of 51.17 seconds. His personal best is 51.67, which is World Aquatics’ qualification standard.
“I have had a really good last six months of training just absolutely flogging myself,” the 27-year-old said.
“Swimming is tricky … You’re training for a long time for really marginal gains, microscopic sometimes. I have just been banging at the brick wall trying to get to that next level, and the faster you get, the harder it is to keep getting faster.”
Chalmers (47.15 seconds) touched the wall ahead of William Yang (48.50) and Flynn Southam (48.64), who are both hoping to land on their first Australian team.
Chalmers had swum a “blow-out”, as he described it, in the 50m freestyle final on Wednesday night, finishing fourth with a time of 22.04. The 50m freestyle is such a minor priority for him that he doesn’t even know Swimming Australia’s Paris 2024 qualification time, the 25-year-old sprinter told reporters this week.
Chalmers found fault with Thursday morning’s 100m freestyle swim.
“I probably didn’t execute to the best of my ability … Definitely some areas I can improve on tonight,” Chalmers said.
“I will really put the pressure on myself … It has got to be self-driven and self-motivated.”
Chalmers, Yang, Southam, Jamie Jack, Zac Incerti, Kai Taylor, Jack Cartwright and Giuliani will race the 100m freestyle final on Thursday night.