Two-time gold medalist Ashleigh Johnson returns to Ransom Everglades, shares Olympic journey
As water polo Olympic gold medalist Ashleigh Johnson toured the Ransom Everglades High School on Thursday, students swarmed the stairwell for group photos and selfies as she visited her alma mater. The men’s and women’s water polo team eagerly asked questions, gazed at her gold medal and shared their excitement for the fall water polo season.
One student who introduced herself participated in a Miami swim program founded by Johnson and her sister, Chelsea. The two sisters launched the Johnson Sisters Swimming Program for the Breakthrough Miami Summer Institute in 2018. As a 2012 graduate of the Coconut Grove school, Johnson said she feels like a minimal part in the student’s journey and is forever honored to be recognized and revered.
Now one of the world’s best female water polo goalies, Johnson helped the U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team to a second straight gold medal at the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo. At Ransom Everglades, she won four state titles in water polo and one state title in the 50 meter freestyle.
Johnson shared the value in her difference as the first Black woman on the USA Olympics Water Polo team in addition to how she established a sense of belonging in isolating spaces.
Revisiting Ransom Everglades filled Johnson with nostalgia: getting to visit the bay, the long car rides to school, sitting in her mathematics and ceramics class all while balancing her role as a star athlete.
When Johnson went through difficult times, she looked to her high school coach Eric Lefebvre for guidance and mentorship. It was Ransom that helped create the building blocks for social, academic and athletic equilibrium in her life, she said.
As a young high school athlete, Johnson said she didn’t understand why her sport lacked athletes of color. Through research, she recognized barriers such as access to swimming pools and aquatic centers within marginalized communities. Through this, she learned the immense impact she has from playing the sport she loves and representing athletes who aspire to fill her shoes.
“It’s definitely been an isolating experience being the only one, but it’s also really been empowering, knowing who I represent, being able to represent so many different people whose backgrounds are so different than mine and being able to create pathways to opportunity for people who look like me,” Johnson said.
Johnson credits her mother, Donna Johnson, for showing her strength within alienating and isolating, white spaces. Johnson recalled joining the USA women’s team and feeling out of place with most team members from the West coast. Through that experience, she realized that she, in fact, did belong, and shared her gift with other players, ultimately strengthening her own along with her teammates’ performance.
“Your difference is something that’s valuable, something that can be added to the environment that you’re in, and that there’s a reason why you’re here,” she said.
Johnson attended Princeton University, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and was the first player in Princeton women’s water polo history to be named first-team All-American, an annual honorific title.
Johnson said she hopes to attend a third Olympic games, but in the meantime will be traveling to Athens, Greece, to play water polo professionally. Johnson noted that while her experiences have been coupled with challenges, the opportunity to share it with Ransom students and young aspiring athletes is immeasurable.
“The pressure of representation like representing my school, representing my family, representing our race, it felt like a responsibility, it felt like a burden before when I was younger and I didn’t really understand it, right,” Johnson added. “But once I understood it, I was able to welcome it. I was able to use it to fuel my journey.”
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 6:25 PM.