Alumni
Alumni Events and Reunions
Ashleigh Johnson '12 returns to Ransom Everglades
The road to the 2024 Olympics in Paris for water polo star Ashleigh Johnson '12 included a fun-filled and eventful stop at Ransom Everglades. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Johnson helped the U.S. women's national team defeat Spain in a pre-Olympic tune up at the Ansin Aquatic Center on Dec. 7, and she also spent time on campus meeting students and reconnecting with friends and faculty.
"It's a really special opportunity for me to be back at Ransom Everglades and see all of the kids ... and tell them about where I've been .... and be a part of the family again," she said. "To be able to come back and share those lessons is really important to me."
Johnson, who led Team USA to gold medals in the 2016 and 2021 Summer Games, also won five state titles (four in water polo and one in swimming) during her years at Ransom Everglades.
Her visit to the upper school allowed her to connect with her former coach at RE, Eric Lefebvre, who interviewed Johnson and her Team USA Coach Adam Krikorian during an assembly at the Lewis Family Auditorium. Johnson reminisced about her days in the pool, her experience in the classroom – she recalled loving her Chinese class under the late Youming Che – and her trip to the Everglades as a ninth grader with Outward Bound.
After describing a close encounter with a family of large spiders on that trip, she recalled an experience on the water at night that was "one of those magical moments where you stop and pause in your life. [I recall thinking] this is a really cool experience. You drop all the fear, you drop all the anticipation, you're just there, you're in the moment. It's just really special."
After the assembly, she met with reporters from the Miami Herald and NBC 6 South Florida before visiting a few classrooms, saying hello to former teachers and heading to the pool for training in preparation for the game against Spain, which Team USA won by a 9-7 score. Johnson's sister Chelsea Johnson '14 and mother, Donna Johnson, were in attendance with other family members.
"I didn't love to work hard when I was young," Ashleigh Johnson admitted during the assembly. "That just wasn't me. I brought the motto to our team: work smart ... When I decided to pursue the Olympics ... I really had to learn to work hard ... I needed to push myself to get there every day, and be comfortable failing. I failed so many times .... I actually relish failure now because I just know I'm playing with the best in the world. To be the best in the world you have to work hard and you have to fail."
Find the Miami Herald story here.
Johnson, who led Team USA to gold medals in the 2016 and 2021 Summer Games, also won five state titles (four in water polo and one in swimming) during her years at Ransom Everglades.
Her visit to the upper school allowed her to connect with her former coach at RE, Eric Lefebvre, who interviewed Johnson and her Team USA Coach Adam Krikorian during an assembly at the Lewis Family Auditorium. Johnson reminisced about her days in the pool, her experience in the classroom – she recalled loving her Chinese class under the late Youming Che – and her trip to the Everglades as a ninth grader with Outward Bound.
After describing a close encounter with a family of large spiders on that trip, she recalled an experience on the water at night that was "one of those magical moments where you stop and pause in your life. [I recall thinking] this is a really cool experience. You drop all the fear, you drop all the anticipation, you're just there, you're in the moment. It's just really special."
After the assembly, she met with reporters from the Miami Herald and NBC 6 South Florida before visiting a few classrooms, saying hello to former teachers and heading to the pool for training in preparation for the game against Spain, which Team USA won by a 9-7 score. Johnson's sister Chelsea Johnson '14 and mother, Donna Johnson, were in attendance with other family members.
"I didn't love to work hard when I was young," Ashleigh Johnson admitted during the assembly. "That just wasn't me. I brought the motto to our team: work smart ... When I decided to pursue the Olympics ... I really had to learn to work hard ... I needed to push myself to get there every day, and be comfortable failing. I failed so many times .... I actually relish failure now because I just know I'm playing with the best in the world. To be the best in the world you have to work hard and you have to fail."
Find the Miami Herald story here.
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Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.