Adrienne Johnston, right, a Spanish teacher at Riverside Middle School, introduced the students to her sister, Abby, an Olympic silver medalist in 3-meter synchronized diving. Adrienne was recently honored as the Emerging Teach of the Year for secondary schools in Greenville County.
Students stood in line, 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. to get a photo with Abby, the Olympic silver medalist. The photos turned into group sessions to make sure the students got to class on time.
Principal Eric Williams, left, and a school official, were an assembly line getting all the pictures taken.
Students waited in line to get a photo taken with Olympic silver medalist Abby Johnston. She and teammate Kelci Bryant were the first Americans to medal in synchronized diving at the London Games after three Olympics of futility in the event.
Yet there was Adrienne Johnston, a Spanish teacher at Riverside Middle School and two weeks ago honored as Greenville County’s Emerging Teacher of the Year for secondary schools.
“It’s amazing that (Adrienne) was honored for teaching and I won a medal at the Olympics,” Abby said. “I wanted to come visit her and spend some time in the classroom with the students.”
Principal Eric Williams said, “It’s wonderful they achieved success at a high level in different fields. It’s important for the kids to see these women as role models.”
It was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics that spurred Abby, 22, to pursue her Olympic dream. “Having positive role models are important. I got to meet Dominique Dawes at the ’96 Olympics. And I got to touch Laura Wilkinson’s (10-meter platform diving gold medalist, 2000) gold medal. That was so inspiring,” Abby said.
Abby began her athletic career as a gymnast. “I was doing flips when I was little and wanted to be a gymnast. Then I had an injury when I was young and switched to diving.”
That’s where Wilkinson came into Abby’s mindset as a role model to steer her journey for an Olympic diving medal. Wilkinson broke her foot training for the 2000 Sydney Games and recovered three weeks before their start.
Abby’s qualifying story parallels Wilkinson’s frantic road to the Olympics. Abby and Kelci had to score enough points on their final dive at the Olympic Trials to qualify. Abby described her focus as, “being in a special zone when I dive. Everything is blocked out.”
As she was escorted to her first class Abby, who attends Duke, was asked what message she wanted to share with the children. “Work hard and if you have a dream, you can achieve it.”