Episode 137: Ashleigh Johnson

Laughter Permitted with Julie Foudy

Julie Foudy

Sports

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two-time Olympic gold medalist and water polo superstar Ashleigh Johnson joins Laughter Permitted to talk about how she was introduced to the sport of water polo, how she remains the only Black woman to compete for the U.S. in water polo at the Olympic level and how she hopes to be an example of what’s possible in the sport and beyond. She also shares her perspective of the U.S. women’s water polo team finishing fourth at the 2024 Paris Games and how she’s embracing saying, “Yes,” to new opportunities post-Olympics (which includes Fashion Week in New York City, hanging with Taylor Swift at the VMAs and more!). Plus, Ashleigh, who is considered the best goalkeeper in the world, dives into how her main goal is to simply “get the ball,” which propels her to limits even she can’t imagine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Laughter Permitted podcast is brought to you by Ally.
0:02.9	Do It Right.
0:04.0	Hello, welcome to Laughter Permitted.
0:06.4	I'm Julie Fowdy.
0:07.8	I'm Leno Zowi.
0:09.1	Something I absolutely love about our podcast is having a built-in reason to catch up with
0:15.4	awesome people and we did just that with our guest. Two-time Olympic gold medalist and
0:22.0	water polo superstar Ashley Johnson.
0:26.3	And she is a rock star.
0:29.2	Ashley is considered by many to be the best goalie in the sport of water polo and she won those
0:35.4	two Olympic golds at the Rio and Tokyo Games. This summer at the Paris Games
0:40.1	the US water polo team was on a mission to grab their fourth consecutive Olympic gold
0:46.0	medal, but they fell just short of the podium finishing forth overall.
0:52.0	We talked with Ashley about that experience and
0:54.1	the perspective of course she has on it. Ashley is also the first and remains the
0:59.7	only black woman to represent the United States at the Olympic Games in Water Polo and
1:04.7	she tells the story of how Water Polo was introduced into her life and how she's
1:08.9	trying to change the narrative around black people and swimming in this country.
1:13.7	Ashley is a graduate of Princeton University and she shares how she's considering her next step in both
1:19.1	the sport of water polo and life. Lots and lots to gain from this episode and this gym of a human.
1:26.2	So get comfortable listening. It's Ashley Johnson.
1:32.4	The SBN and 30 for 30 Podcasts present.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -148 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Julie Foudy, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Julie Foudy and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.