Cody Simpson returned to his 'first love' by swapping his music career for swimming and is set to compete at the Commonwealth Games

By George Ramsay, CNN Video produced by Amy Li

Updated 0646 GMT (1446 HKT) July 28, 2022

ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHCody Simpson on swapping music career for swimming 02:54

(CNN)As Cody Simpson stood behind the starting blocks at his first Olympic swimming trials last year, the experience felt completely new but also strangely familiar.

With a big crowd watching on and fans chanting his name, it transported him back to the thick of his music when he was regularly performing in front of thousands of people and making live TV appearances. «I've had the experience of having to get up and do things in front of lots and lots of people that I cared about the outcome,» says Simpson. «I knew how to deal with it more than let it ruin me in that moment, I suppose.»It's now approaching three years since Simpson turned his focus away from his music and towards competitive swimming. In that time, his progress has been fast. He hadn't expected to make the finals of the Olympic trials for the Tokyo Games, nor had he envisaged earning a place on the Australian team off the back of two years of training. Read More«I didn't ease into it really, we weren't cautious about trying to build up slowly,» Simpson tells CNN Sport. «My coach had me doing things that I definitely wasn't ready to do at the times I was doing them, but I just loved that grind. »It put me on a trajectory of rapid improvement because I just had to learn how to deal with it — whether that was throwing up at least twice a week for the first six months, just adapting to what I was trying to put my body through."Earning a place on the Australian team for the Paris Olympics has been Simpson's goal ever since he returned to swimming, but right now, he is preparing to