Long time Olympian Ashley Johnson has catapulted her team to
the top in water polo for years.
Born, raised and trained in Miami, Johnson is known as
one of the best goalkeepers in the sport that she
is.
NBC6's Marissa Bag explains how she is feeling ahead of
the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and now looks up
the pool.
In two months time, Miami native Ashley Johnson will head
to Paris for her third Olympic Games.
She admits even Olympic veterans get goosebumps.
We've got a lot.
We want to get much better.
We want to put in so much time.
Johnson has dedicated her life to water polo and has
the hardware to prove it.
As goalkeeper for the US women's water polo team, she's
won two gold medals, one in 2016 in Rio, the
other in Tokyo.
She brings her Miami roots with her to the pool.
I'm always happy to represent the three O 5 and
it's my family, it's my friends, and I'm just really
excited to hopefully bring home gold again.
Before she hops in the pool in Paris, she'll focus
on the opening ceremony.
Johnson will be one of hundreds of American Olympians who
will float down the River Seine in the groundbreaking ceremony.
It's a moment of unity she'll hold dear.
It's the one place where everyone is, yes, looking forward
to competing.
They're in the peak physical form, peak mental form, like
they're all ready, but we all pause for a second
and just kind of embrace the Olympic spirit together.
Johnson has her heart set on 1/3 gold medal.
She's already amazed by what her team has done to
raise Water Polo's profile on the world stage.
The success that our team has already had has been
really incredible and growing our sport, growing fandom, growing coverage,
like just getting people talking about us trying our sport.
And, yeah, I think that the heights that women see
in our sport has only grown.
Ashley Johnson is considered one of the best goalkeepers in
the world in water polo.
In Tokyo, she made 80 saves, which is the best
of any goalkeeper during an Olympics.
We can't wait to see what she does in Paris.
I'm Marissa Bag, NBC 6 News.