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USA Water Polo Goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson Finds Joy in Her Trailblazing Journey

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PARIS — These Olympics may very well be described because the Games of ladies’s empowerment, especially the empowerment of black women. There’s the historic dominance of the U.S. women’s basketball team, the seismic impact of gymnast Simone Biles and sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s quest to win the gold medal she felt was denied her in 2020.

Then there’s Ashleigh Johnson, a two-time Olympic champion who is taken into account top-of-the-line goalkeepers in women’s water polo — In 2021, she saved 80 shots on the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, greater than another goalkeeper in either the lads’s or women’s tournamentsJohnson is a pillar of the dominant U.S. women’s Olympic water polo team, which is searching for its fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal.

Johnson helped lead Team USA to gold on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games. Her team opened its title defense Saturday with a dominant 15-6 victory over Greece. Johnson recorded 10 saves in three or more quarters. Team USA lost 13-11 to Spain in pool play on Monday.

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Johnson, who played water polo for 4 years at Princeton, made her first Olympic team at age 21. Now, at 29, Johnson has grow to be a sage, a keeper of the flame, and has warned the Olympic team that it must write its own history.

“The legacy of this team is so strong — the U.S. women’s water polo team has won three consecutive gold medals, and this is an opportunity to win a fourth,” she said. “But this particular team, this group of women, hasn’t done anything yet. We haven’t won a gold medal, we haven’t been to the Olympics. This is our first opportunity to prove ourselves. We’re making our own way and writing our own stories.”

That’s how Johnson described her journey, from swimming lessons to winning three consecutive Florida state championships at Miami High School to playing intercollegiate water polo at an Ivy League school to becoming a dominant force in a sport where there have been no black players.

United States water polo gold medalists Ashleigh Johnson (left) and Madeline Musselman (right) after their gold medal match against Spain throughout the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tatsumi Water Polo Centre on August 7, 2021 in Tokyo.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

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In 2016, Johnson became the primary African-American woman to affix the U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team. For all of the talk of progress and the misguided backlash against diversity, Johnson is proof of the effectiveness of diversity and the ability of inclusivity.

Just ask the opposition. Johnson played 4 years at Princeton and have become the all-time saves leader. Johnson’s journey was a difficult and lonely learning experience that gave her a brand new perspective on what other trailblazers endured to interrupt through previously segregated sports.

The biggest challenge was an internal one, testing her self-confidence. The first was selecting a university.

“I played the sport in high school, and deciding to go to college to play water polo wasn’t easy,” she said. “I chose Princeton, which was a very unusual path for a water polo player, but I was going to play water polo there, which I did for four years.”

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After her sophomore 12 months, Johnson made the difficult decision to depart college and train to make the U.S. Women’s Olympic Water Polo Team. “That decision was tough because I never saw anyone on that team that looked like me. I never imagined that I could do that. I always wanted to balance my life with my sport, and I felt like the decision to move from New Jersey to California was a huge decision to give up that balance and take it out of my life.”

She had to beat her doubts, but eventually she found the positive energy of family and friends who encouraged her to take the leap. “I thought, ‘OK, here are all these people who believe in me, who believe I can do this. Let me take a chance and believe I can do it, believe in myself and just do it.’ So I did. I worked hard for two years and eventually made my first Olympic team.”

In some ways, Johnson’s journey defines the journey of any athlete who makes the Olympic team in any sport. She was stretched and pushed in ways she could never have imagined. Even the isolation of being a trailblazer became empowering.

“We trained twice a day, lifted weights four times a week. It was a lot more than I’ve ever done,” Johnson said. “I’m glad I took the risk, but it was weird.”

As an East Coast transplant to the West Coast, Johnson was a fish out of water. “Water polo is West Coast-based, so coming from the East Coast and taking what I knew about water polo, how I played, to the national team was a very difficult transition. And then, being the only person who looked like me, I thought, ‘OK, how do I fit in when nobody looks like me, nobody has my background, and what do I want to take from them? What do I want to give? How open, how vulnerable am I going to be on this team?’”

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What if she did all this, sacrificed herself, opened herself up, and still didn’t achieve the specified result?

Johnson discovered that letting go of fear brings freedom.

“It was a tough journey,” she said. “But I used to be ultimately capable of make the team and recover from my fear of failure, which is difficult when you’ve such an enormous goal.

“That’s something that a lot of people don’t realize about the Olympic journey. The more you hold on to the fear of not achieving your goal, the more it hurts when you don’t achieve it, and the less you actually experience the journey along the way, which is the best thing you get out of it.”

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USA goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson serves the ball throughout the Group B match against Greece on the primary day of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on the Aquatics Centre on July 27 in Paris.

Clive Rose/2024 Getty Images

Three Olympics later, Johnson has grow to be the leader and star of Team USA. Her mission now, in addition to helping the team win its fourth consecutive gold medal, is to open the door and convey more young women who appear like her into the game.

In July, she felt invigorated when 65-year-old rapper Flavor Flav signed a five-year sponsorship deal to support the lads’s and ladies’s national water polo teams.

“I’ve met a lot of young black girls in my sport. A lot of them reach out to me through Instagram through USA Water Polo,” Johnson said. “Just sharing stories, encouraging and being a fan of people who find themselves coming into our sport, being a voice that guides them, telling them they’re on the precise path, they’re doing the precise thing, there’s a spot for you here.

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“I think telling a new story is something I’m trying to do, saying we belong here, we stand out here, and then mentoring. That’s really important to me.”

When she was 21 and walking the trail of a pioneer alone, Johnson struggled hard to seek out joy in her journey. Today, she said, her joy is immense.

“I think finding joy in what you do is asking yourself why you do it,” she said. “I play because it brings me joy even when it’s hard. Like, jumping in a pool is one of the hardest things I do all day, but I think about it as my job, I get to play a game with my friends, and it’s the same game I’ve been playing since I was a kid. The game hasn’t changed, I’ve just gotten better at it, so I play the game I’m really good at with my friends every day.”

There is more joy at these Games than on the Tokyo Games, when the world was in the grips of a pandemic.

Johnson said 2021 lacked a way of lightness and joy.

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“One of the biggest differences between the Tokyo Olympics and these games is that the pandemic is behind us, and that has affected a lot of athletes,” she said. “Loads of people have been grieving, lots of people have been wondering how one can take care of the financial losses, the social losses, and a lot distance.

“We didn’t have any interaction with other athletes (in Tokyo). The Olympic spirit was there, but it was muted. So going into these Games, that Olympic spirit was revived. As excited as I am to play, people are excited to go and be part of the Olympic spirit. We all felt a surge of energy.”

Winning a fourth gold medal will bring her joy, but it would also make her discipline more diverse, and the outcomes her team achieves will give her peace of mind.

Joy has grow to be multifaceted.

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“The pandemic has put things in perspective for us,” Johnson said. “OK, I play water polo and I’m an athlete, but what else am I? — understanding that you’re more than just an athlete, more than what you do at your job. I need to go for a walk every day, or I like to cook, I like to read. Connecting with things that make you happy.”

William C. Rhoden is a columnist at Andscape and the creator of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. He directs Rhoden Fellows, a training program for aspiring journalists at HBCUs.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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