Cody Simpson, the singer and actor who returned to his swimming roots to become a Dolphin and reach the edge of making it to Olympic waters, has given his partner and one of Australia's greats of the pool, Emma McKeon, some sound and pragmatic advice on transition to the rest of life.

The couple have both retired from competitive swimming, he at 28, she at 30. While McKeown has been a professional swimmer all her adult life and more, Simpson has had at least two very separate lives and is now on a fast track to returning to the his dryland entertainment roots.

In a fine, 4,000-word, feature in The Age this weekend, journalist Konrad Marshall joins Simpson on a "drive to Homebush for the first day of rehearsals in a new production of Guys & Dolls."

At some stage, Marshall asks the star in the car whether he regrets not coming back to swimming a year or two earlier given how close he came to becoming an Olympian. Says Simpson:

“All the time. I also have the thought of ‘What if I never did any of the entertainment stuff, and just swam? How far could I have gone?’ But it’s sliding-doors stuff. I could keep myself up all night with that shit if I wanted, but at some point you have to accept that you’ve made decisions when you did and the dice fell where they did.”

For McKeon, part of Aussie swimming royalty, the swimming voyage was much longer and more consistent and it included a stellar campaign at the Covid-delayed Tokyo 2020one Olympics, where she claimed an all-time, global record among women of seven medals at one Games 49 years after Shane Gould achieved for self and Australia what remains a record in Olympic waters top this days: five solo medals at one Games, including three gold, all in World-record times.

Marshall writes that Simpson "wasn’t jealous of McKeon", adding: "After all, she had her own struggles, not so much booking a trip to Paris but competing in the specific events she wanted to defend from Tokyo.

“We felt the same way at trials, actually,” Simpson recalls. "We had different goals and both fell short, so we confided in each other about that a lot.”

Then Marshall note the deeper current in the life of athletes, the rip tide of transition from a life less ordinary as an elite sports star to a life more ordinary, in which new purpose and mission are often more elusive than a stream of success in sport might suggest to the casual on-looker as much as the high achiever. Marshall writes:

"If anything, the shoe is on the other foot now that they’re living together and both retired from swimming, because his transition was so much smoother than hers. McKeon has enjoyed her downtime, and knows what life looks like sans serious swimming schedule. But she’s also ready to find what’s next, which is tricky for a 30-year-old who’s been a professional swimmer half her life."

Says Simpson: “I’m like, ‘You’re gonna have to suck at stuff for a bit. And if you’ve been the very best at something, you’re not used to that.” No wonder:

Emma McKeon Waves Farewell As Most Medalled Aussie Olympian All-Time

″“Great things take time, and the long road there is where all the necessary things are learnt to take us to the next level. I will definitely miss it ... It’s brought me a lot of great relationships and shaped me into the person I am.” - Emma McKeon

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Marshall concludes that particular focus in a much widener feature with this:

"For Simpson, this was a golden opportunity to look at his career with objectivity and a little perspective. [The swimmer says]: “You know how you look back at old Facebook photos, and you’re embarrassed by them? That was almost like me looking at songs and stuff from when I was younger But now I feel like an accumulation of everything I’ve been, rather than rejecting any phase I’ve been through. I’m the full whole sum of my parts.”

The Age feature also looks at Simpson's journey back to the water after a celebrity life and lifestyle in a country currently living through the Wild West of its own breakdown. Marshall notes the amusing and ultimately heartening good-parent response of Simpson's mum to a son sharing his Dolphin mission and putting in calls to Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe to seek advice:

“‘Oh Codes, why would you wanna go from being really successful in your world to looking at a black line six hours a day?’. It surprised me that he was happy to do a 360, but once he said he would regret it one day if he looked back and didn’t give it a shot, I was with him 100 per cent.”

Says Simpson: "I just enjoyed the pain of [work in the pool] – it made me feel alive … I was searching for some self-imposed adversity."

The psychological challenge was tougher than he'd remembered from his first go at regular swim training in his youth, while the physical demands of the sport outweighed anything he'd experienced on the road as singer, actor and paparazzi prey.

Life back in the pool also brought back what Marshall describes as a "simplified, streamlined, newly domesticated life" in which Simpson "found pleasure in knowing exactly what was happening from Monday morning to Sunday night, down to the hour.

“It doesn’t make sense, does it?” says Simpson. “But it tickles two different sides of my brain.”

It makes perfect sense, of course - and gets straight to the heart of why transition from fast lane o the rest of life can be so tricky. One minute, there's a protective bubble and life is organised, with purpose. The next, the bubble bursts and the discomfort of hard work, dedication and discipline in a comfort zone of its own kind is gone - forever ... though the identity of a life in the bubble remains in the athlete - forever, if they let it.

This book, reviewed a couple of weeks back here at SOS, is worth anyone's eye, time and attention:

Shane Gould’s Latest Winner: A Vital Guide For Athletes & Coaches On Career Transition

Book Review: the Aussie National Treasure’s book is a gem of a read with invaluable guidance from a swim great who “messed up” her own ‘retirement’ from the fast lane but down decades of challenge & learning soaked up vital lessons she now shares on a subject the sport still struggles with

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

It's a very big theme, one the McKeon family is engaged in, not only through Emma but Uncle Rob, AKA, Rob Woodhouse, CEO of Swimming Australia and before that agent to star athletes and before that, Olympic bronze medallist for Australia in the pool at LA'84.

This week past, David McKeon, Emma's brother and also a retired Olympian and Dolphin, joined the roll call as he took part in an athlete career-transition event:

• Read The Marshall Feature on Simpson in Full at The Age