2022 Total-Waterpolo.com Total 7
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Princeton University alumna and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Ashleigh Johnson keeps adding honors to her legacy as she garnered recognition on the 2022 Total-WaterPolo.com Total 7.
The 2020 Total Player of the Year prior to finishing as the runner-up for the Total Player Award in 2021 behind teammate Maddie Musselman and third place in 2022 behind Musselman and Rita Keszthelyi of Hungary, Johnson repeats on the Total 7 this year at goalkeeper to claim her fifth nod (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). Every year, the site’s Total Player vote produces a dream team – the Total 7. Since the inaugural women’s team in 2018, Johnson has stood as the only goalkeeper to earn recognition as the best backstop on the international stage.
Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Sports category and a 2017 Princeton graduate, Johnson is among only two Tigers’ athletes ever to win an Olympic gold medal (in 2016) and then come back to compete at Princeton (former United States Senator/men’s basketball player Bill Bradley was the other). She anchored the United States to another Gold Medal in 2021 during the COVID-19 postponed games in Tokyo.
The recipient of the C. Otto von Kienbusch and Cutino Awards during her senior season in 2017, she was the first player in Princeton women’s water polo history to be named first team All-America and third ever to be selected All-America in each of her four seasons. Johnson finished her Princeton career with a 100-17 record, along with a school-record 1,362 saves and a .693 save percentage. 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.
Johnson’s 2021 appearance at the Olympics marked the fourth time in the past four games that the United States’ cage was defended by a CWPA alumna as University of Michigan graduate and CWPA Hall of Fame member Betsey Armstrong was the goalie for the 2008 Silver Medal and 2012 Gold Medal squads.
