Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis grew up in Sydney, famous for its coastline and beachside existence. But for reasons beyond her control, she didn't learn to swim until she took the plunge as an adult.

Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis has achieved a lot in her young life.

She is a social researcher at Western Sydney University, she has represented Australia at the United Nations, she advices groups like UNESCO and a couple of years ago she was awarded the NSW Premier's Youth Medal.

But for her family, Angelica's greatest achievement is learning to swim as an adult.

Australia has a sense of itself as a nation of swimmers, and presents this image to the world in its tourism campaigns, films and ownership of the pool at the Olympics.

But in reality, a quarter of Australian adults are very weak swimmers or cannot swim at all, including Angelica, who grew up in Western Sydney, the eldest of nine siblings in a big, blended family.

Instead of going to swimming lessons after school, Angelica spent a lot of her time helping to take care of her little sisters and brothers, one of whom lives with severe disabilities.

It wasn't until she was in her mid-20s that Angelica had the time to learn how to swim, so she could finally understand the calming and cooling effects of the water.

Angelica's podcast documenting her quest to learn to swim as an adult is called Sink or Swim and was produced by Impact Studios.

You can stay up to date with what Angelica is up to at her website.

This episode of Conversations explores swimming, royal surf life saving, drowning, learning to swim, beaches, Sydney, Bondi, Western Sydney, Blacktown, Randwick, pools, public pools, climate change, summer, hot summers, carers, family dynamics, divorce, Nigeria, first generation Australians.

The physics and feeling of floating — why Angelica learnt to swim