from zero to hero

For heaps of Australians, swimming is second nature; they’ve been in bathers since before they could walk. But learning to swim is a bit like learning a new language – it’s a lot harder to pick up when you’re old enough to overthink it. Nadia Azizabadi, who never swam while growing up in Iran’s capital, Tehran, was 28 when she moved to Malaysia and took her first dip. By then, holding her head underwater felt like a pretty weird thing to do.

“Other swimmers told me to ‘put my head down and go down’,” she