Ashleigh Johnson

Ashleigh Elizabeth Johnson (born September 12, 1994) is an American water polo player who competed for Princeton University, and played with the Orizzonte Catania and Ethnikos Piraeus professional teams. She was considered by many skilled observers of water polo to be among the best women's goalkeepers of her era. She was part of the American national team that won the gold medal at both the 2015 World Aquatics Championships and the 2019 World Aquatics Championships. In 2016, she became the first African-American woman to make the US Olympic team in water polo. While playing in the critical role of goaltender, 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 that placed fourth overall in competition.

Early life Johnson's was born September 12, 1994 in Miami, Florida to Jamaican natives Donna and Winston Johnson. Her brothers are Blake, Julius and William. Her younger sister Chelsea, worked the 2 Meter Center position and competed with Johnson at Princeton.

Ransom Everglades High Graduating in 2012, Johnson attended Miami's Ransom Everglades School, where she was trained and managed in water polo primarily under Ransom Coach Eric Lefebvre. At Ransom Everglades High, she was a four-year letter winner and starter on her school's water polo team, guiding them to three state championships, and earned All-Dade County honors throughout her High School career.

As a multi-sport athlete, Johnson also competed in swimming in high school, as did many outstanding water polo players. She earned all-county honors twice in swimming, and was the Florida State individual High School champion in the 50-yard Freestyle event in her Sophomore year in 2009 with a time of 23:46. 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. During her time with the Princeton Women's team, they won Southern titles in 2013 and 2014, and were Eastern Championships in 2013 and 2015. The team played in the NCAA Championships in both 2013 and 2015. In 2016, Princeton's women's water polo team placed third in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Championship, and Johnson, as a Sophomore was honored as a member of the All Collegiate Water Polo Association Tournament team.

In 2017, Johnson graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Princeton. Her sister Chelsea, who also played for Princeton, graduated in 2018. 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. Johnson brought geographical diversity to the US team as the only team member not from California. Her age, 21 years old, and her sub-Saharan African ancestry were highlighted by Sports Illustrated leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games. As goalkeeper, she was a critical part of leading the US team to the gold medal.

Ethnikos Piraeus, Greece During the 2021-22 season, she was the goalkeeper of Greek Ethnikos Piraeus, a club with a strong tradition of achievement in Greek water polo. On March 30, she won the Women's LEN Trophy with Ethnikos Piraeus, her first European club competition title. That was the second time Ethnikos has won the title, thus becoming the Greek team with the most wins in the competition.

The U.S. women's team won the gold medal, defeating Spain 14-5 in the final round to determine the gold and silver medal winners. Strong in the late rounds, the U.S. Women had previously won both their quarter-final and semi-final rounds, while Spain beat the strong women's teams from China and Hungary to also move to the final round. In early rounds, in an unexpected outcome, the U.S. women had lost to Hungary, a country with a strong tradition in men's water polo.

2024 Paris Olympics At the age of 29, Johnson appeared in her third Olympiad in Paris at the 2024 Summer Olympics. The US team's first match was against Greece, and the they won easily with Johnson only allowing 4 points as goalkeeper. 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.

In highlights of her international competition, she won a team gold medal in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, and a gold medal in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. She won two golds in the World Championships with one in 2015 in Kazan, and one in 2019 in Gwangju.

Activism As the only Black player and the only person from the East Coast, Johnson described playing on the Olympic team as a difficult transition. 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." 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