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Ashleigh Johnson

Ashleigh Elizabeth Johnson is an American water polo player of Ethnikos Piraeus team, who is considered by many to be the best goalkeeper in the world. She was part of the American national team that won the gold medal at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships. In 2016, she became the first African-American woman to make the US Olympic team in water polo. She was part of the gold-medal winning 2016 and 2020 U.S. women's water polo Olympic teams, and earned a spot on the 2024 U.S. women's water polo Olympic team. She is a 2017 graduate of Princeton University. She is 6'1" tall and her team nickname is "Ayay".

Early life
Johnson's parents are Donna and Winston Johnson, both of whom were born in Jamaica. Her brothers are Blake, Julius and William. Her younger sister Chelsea, is a 2 Meter player and played with Johnson at Princeton. Chelsea graduated from Princeton a year after Ashleigh in 2018 and continues to be involved with water polo in Miami. About her decision to play goalie in water polo, Johnson shared with Princeton Alumni Weekly her goalie origins trace back to her sister Chelsea: ==Water polo career==
Water polo career
High school Johnson was raised in Miami, Florida and attended Ransom Everglades School, where she was a four-year letter winner and starter on her school's water polo team, guiding them to three state championships. She also earned All-Dade honors throughout career, Johnson was a multi-sport athlete and competed in swimming in high school. She earned all-county honors twice in swimming. She was the state individual champion on the 50 Free event in her sophomore year. She was the first Princeton women's water polo player to be named first team All-America and she was the third ever to be selected All-America in each of her four seasons. The geographical diversity Johnson brought to the team, she was the only team member not from California, was highlighted by SwimSwam before the Olympic Games. Her age, 21 years old, and her sub-Saharan African ancestry were highlighted by Sports Illustrated leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games. She helped the team win the gold medal at the Olympic Games. Ethnikos Piraeus, Greece For the 2021-22 season, she is the goalkeeper of Greek Ethnikos Piraeus, a club with big tradition in Greek water polo. On March 30, she won the Women's LEN Trophy with Ethnikos Piraeus. That was the second time Ethnikos has won the title, thus becoming the Greek team with the most in the competition. Meanwhile, that was Johnson's first European club competition title. 2020 Summer Olympics Johnson also competed on the US Olympic water polo team in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, which were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. women's water polo team again earned a gold medal. US Olympic head coach, Adam Krikorian, has said of Johnson:She's an incredible athlete. She's got great hand-eye coordination, great reflexes and reactions. And then she's fiercely competitive - fiercely. And you would never know it by her demeanor or by the huge smile on her face. But to us, on the inside, we know how driven she is to be one of the best ever to do it. ==Activism==
Activism
As the only Black player and the only person from the East Coast, Johnson described that initially it was a tough transition to play on the Olympic team. She has said,I didn't really have a dream to be here because I just didn't see a pathway to be here. I didn't see, like, anyone who looked like me here, anyone with my background here, and it just seemed like a world away. Johnson has encouraged younger athletes saying: "We belong in the pool." Johnson said, I don't think people of color have had adequate access to aquatic spaces, and you can see it in the way our sport looks, see it in the way swimming looks. It's not representative of the U.S. in terms of diversity. One of the biggest barriers for people of color in water spaces, not just water polo, is the story that they don't belong here. So talking about it and saying you do, seeing a man who's a rapper, who's not even part of this space get so passionate and invested in a team like ours, I think is life changing...I think that's one of those things that breaks down a barrier. Johnson has observed that in the Black community football is a unifying sport because everyone loves it, has someone they love in the sport and feels like they belong such that it feels like "family." She added, "That's what I want water polo to feel like for people of color." ==Awards==
Awards
Swimming World 2014 Female Water Polo Player of the Year • Swimming World 2015 Female Water Polo Player of the Year • Swimming World 2019 Female Water Polo Player of the Year • Water polo at the 2022 FINA World Championships – Women's tournament: Most Valuable Goalkeeper • Water polo at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships – Women's tournament: Best Goalkeeper ==See also==
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