Ashleigh Elizabeth Johnson (born September 12, 1994) is an American

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

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 The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia hosted this event for the first time. The number of participating national teams (190), ...

. In 2016, she became the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

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. Johnson was raised in Miami by her mother, Donna Johnson. Johnson grew up with four siblings (three brothers and one sister), all of whom play water polo. Growing up in Miami, her mom had all her kids involved in aquatics, but had to "drag" Ashleigh to swim practice:

Yeah, I did not like swimming. Swimming was not my thing. Swimming was kind of what you had to do, and water polo was the reward. We'd go to school - actually, elementary school - walk across the park, and then we'd go from swim practice to water polo practice. So it was just our endless cycle, day to day - school, park, swimming, water polo. And I fell in love with the sport.

Her brothers are Blake, Julius and William. Her younger sister Chelsea, is a 2 Meter player and played with Johnson at

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

. 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 The ''Princeton Alumni Weekly'' (''PAW'') is a magazine published for the alumni of Princeton University. It was founded in 1900 and, until 1977, it was the only weekly college alumni magazine in the United States. Upon changing to biweekly ...

'' her goalie origins trace back to her sister Chelsea:

Water polo career

High school

Johnson was raised in Miami, Florida and attended

Ransom Everglades School Ransom Everglades School is an independent school, independent, non-profit, co-educational, university-preparatory school, college-preparatory day school serving grades six to twelve in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, Coconut Grove in Miami, F ...

for high school. At Ransom Everglades, she was a four-year letter winner and starter on her school's water polo team guiding them to three consecutive state championships. She also earned All-Dade honors throughout career, Johnson was a multi-sport athlete and also 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. As a senior, Johnson committed to play water polo at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. She graduated from high school in 2012.

Collegiate career

In her first year she was named Third-Team All American, while earning Honorable Mention as a sophomore in 2014, and Second Team as a junior in 2015. In 2017, Johnson graduated with a bachelor's degree from Princeton University. She majored in psychology. Johnson finished her collegiate water polo career as Princeton’s all-time leader in saves (1,362). During her time at Princeton, she compiled a 100-17 win-loss record with a .693 save percentage. 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. She was a 19-time CWPA Defensive Player of the Week award winner, a four-time first-team all-conference player and the CWPA Player of the Year.

2016 Summer Olympics

Johnson was the first

woman to make the US Olympic water polo team when she made the team for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. The geographical diversity Johnson brought to the team, she was the only team member not from California, was highlighted by ''

SwimSwam ''SwimSwam'' is a swimming news organization covering competitive swimming along with diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. SwimSwam launched as a website in March 2012. History The news organization was founded by Braden Keith, Garrett ...

'' before the Olympic Games.Lepesant, Anne (June 17, 2016)
"Interview With World's Top Goalkeeper: Team USA's Ashleigh Johnson"
''

''. Retrieved July 17, 2021. Her age, 21 years old, and her sub-Saharan African ancestry were highlighted by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games.Chavez, Chris (July 29, 2016)
"USA eyes double gold in water polo at Rio Olympics"
''

''. Retrieved July 17, 2021. She helped the team win the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

at the Olympic Games. In doing so, she became just the second Princeton Tiger to win an Olympic gold medal, then return to compete for the university.

Orizzonte Catania, Italy

From January 2018 she has been hired by the

Orizzonte Catania Associazione Sportiva Orizzonte Catania Waterpolo, also known as Ekipe Orizzonte for sponsorship reasons, is an Italian professional women's water polo club from Catania. Founded in 1985, Orizzonte has dominated the Italian championship in the ...

, the most titled club in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

in recent times. She lives and trains in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

for Orizzonte Catania during the season, training in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the off-season.Randazzo, Michael (January 5, 2020)
"Di Fulvio, Johnson Are Swimming World's Top Men's and Women's Water Polo Players for 2019"
''

Swimming World } ''Swimming World'' is a US-based quarterly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'' (kn ...

''. Retrieved July 17, 2021.

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 The European Aquatics Women's Euro Cup, formerly the Women's LEN Trophy and LEN Women's Euro Cup, is European Aquatics's second-tier competition for women's water polo clubs. It was first held in 2000 and 2001 as the LEN Women's Cup Winners' Cup. ...

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 Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, which were held in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The U.S. women's water polo team again earned a gold medal. Johnson made 80 saves during the 2020 Olympics, which was more than any other goalkeeper in the women's and men's tournaments.

2024 Summer Olympics

At the age of 29, Johnson appeared in her third Olympiad in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. Their first match was against Greece and the US team won easily and Johnson only gave up 4 points. 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.

Team USA Women's Water Polo ended their Olympic season in fourth place after a 10 - 11 loss to the Netherlands. Johnson only allowed 37 percent of the shots from the Netherlands.

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.

Her coach encouraged her to embrace her role model status:

...it really took me understanding the bigger context of not only our sport, but access to aquatics, the historical exclusion of people of color from aquatics spaces, and it took all of that to start writing a new history, start writing a new story, start opening up that pathway for the people who will follow me - the girls and boys who look like me - to gain that confidence that maybe I didn't have, that dream that I didn't have because I didn't see a lot of people who looked like me in this space.

Her teammates encourage that role as well. Johnson has encouraged younger athletes saying: "We belong in the pool." She has added:

A lesson that I wish I had heard when I was young was that your difference is the thing that's going to add to the team. It's going to set you apart, and it's going to make your team better. Like, I play this game differently. I look differently than most people in my sport. I tell a lot of kids who, like, tell me that they don't feel like they fit into their team - and I'm like, you keep being you. Your difference makes you great. Your uniqueness is an add, and it takes all types.

In the 2024 Olympics, she has joined with the team's "hype man," rapper

Flavor Flav William Jonathan Drayton Jr. (born March 16, 1959), known by his stage name Flavor Flav ( ), is an American rapper and television personality. Known for his catchphrase "Yeah, boyeeeeee!" when performing, he is a founding member alongside Chuck ...

to raise the visibility of water polo in the Black community especially. 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

* ''

'' 2014 Female Water Polo Player of the Year"Johnson Named Swimming World Magazine Female Water Polo Player of the Year"
''

''. January 5, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2021."Ashleigh Johnson Named Swimming World Magazine's Female Water Polo Player Of The Year"
''

USA Water Polo USA Water Polo is the governing body for the sport of water polo in the United States and is a member of the United States Aquatic Sports. USA Water Polo is responsible for fielding U.S. national teams and hosts 20 annual tournaments. The Organiza ...

''. January 5, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2021. * ''

'' 2015 Female Water Polo Player of the Year * ''

'' 2016 Female Water Polo Player of the YearBrien, Taylor (January 4, 2017)
"Swimming World Presents the 2016 Aquatic Athletes of the Year"
''

''. Retrieved July 17, 2021."Ashleigh Johnson Named Swimming World's Female Water Polo Player Of The Year For 2016"
''

''. January 12, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2021. * ''

'' 2019 Female Water Polo Player of the Year * ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', Sports

30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists published annually by ''Forbes'' magazine since 2011 consisting of 30 notable people under 30 years old in various industries. The American list consists of 600 people, with 30 selected in each of 20 sect ...

: 2022Sutherland, James (December 2, 2021)
"Simone Manuel Named To Forbes 30 Under 30 Sports Class Of 2022"
''

''. Retrieved December 2, 2021. * 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 The women's water polo tournament at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships was held from 4 to 16 February 2024 in Doha. This was the 17th time that the women's water polo tournament has been played since the first edition in 1986. The United Sta ...

: Best Goalkeeper

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Ashleigh 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Miami American female water polo players Water polo goalkeepers Water polo players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Water polo players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in water polo World Aquatics Championships medalists in water polo Water polo players at the 2015 Pan American Games Water polo players at the 2019 Pan American Games Water polo players at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in water polo Princeton Tigers women's water polo players Ethnikos Piraeus Water Polo Club players Expatriate water polo players American expatriate sportspeople in Greece Water polo players at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century American sportswomen