From a Russian prison to the Olympic Games: Brittney Griner opens up on her journey to hell and back

PARIS — There were days Brittney Griner acknowledges, when she could no longer muster the energy to believe that getting out of a Russian prison was possible.

Moments like the one here Saturday, wearing USA across her jersey before an Olympic team practice, were beyond comprehension.

Griner was detained on February 17, 2022, at a Moscow airport with a small amount of hash oil. She thought she was heading overseas to play professional ball in the country. Instead she became a political touchstone, eventually sentenced to nine years in a bleak penal colony for “drug smuggling.”

Hope? Hope for an early release? Hope for freedom?

Hope was in short supply.

Hope "was a dangerous thing to have,” Griner said. “Because you have to just accept it at a certain point. There were points where I was like, ‘This is what it is.’”

The State Department deemed her “wrongfully detained” and in December 2022 the federal government arranged a prisoner swap for a Russian arms dealer who was 10 years into a sentence in the United States.

That won Griner her freedom but secured her additional criticism from some Americans who didn’t approve of the deal for a prisoner dubbed "The Merchant of Death."

Now she is again representing a country that has an array of opinions about her, here in France after boarding her first international flight since she returned from Russia. It is her third Olympics, but this one is different in so many ways, and not just because her now-wife and young son are back home. Memories of Russia always loom.

“It’s always with me,” Griner said Saturday. “There are definitely moments where it’s like, ‘Oh wow, this could be totally different. I could be seeing this beautiful view through the bars.’ It doesn’t go away. It makes you appreciate everything a little bit more.”

Griner was raised in Texas in a military family. Playing for the United States was always the ultimate goal, even better than her 2012 NCAA championships at Baylor or 2014 WNBA title with Phoenix. She won gold at Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.

“It’s always meant everything to me,” Griner said. “My dad, a Marine, 1968-69. For us, for me to represent my country, it means everything to him and to me. Before basketball, I wanted to be in our military, actually. Now to be able to put [the Team USA jersey] on, to be honored to be picked again amongst so many amazing women, and be here a third time, I'm just really stoked.”

Griner has a reputation for being kind and quiet, a far cry from her on-court play where she is considered, teammate Diana Taurasi says, an “intimidating, dominant force.” Here at the Olympics she is the center of attention, repeatedly greeted and congratulated by other American Olympians during Friday’s Opening Ceremony.

“Athletes coming up to me who followed my story [saying] they prayed for me,” she said. “It means a lot.”

She never expected that. Never wanted that. Just being here, though, has inspired her team.

“What BG has gone through in the last couple of years is obviously unprecedented,” Taurasi said. “For her to be able to put this jersey back on, to be at Opening Ceremonies last night. … I know she feels grateful, thankful.”

“It's remarkable when you think about that personal, deeply painful situation,” U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve said. “The way we felt for her personally. Despair. Loss of hope. The things she went through. It is remarkable that she is playing this game and is back playing in the Olympics. I think often about how difficult that must be.”

Griner figures she will get emotional at the entire experience, the juxtaposition of going from a Russian prison to representing the United States. She said she’s trying to just lock in on helping the Americans win an eighth consecutive gold medal.

“I'm trying to tell myself we don’t have time for [emotions, in order] to be locked in,” she said. “But there is going to be emotion here or there. There are going to be emotions everywhere. But it’s the Olympics, I think there are a lot of emotions for everybody.”

There were days she didn’t even bother dreaming of such a thing, never even bothered dreaming of getting out because it was too taxing, too overwhelming, too unlikely. Just dreaming hurt more than she could bear.

“So when that day came, it was even sweeter,” she said. “... I just appreciate everything more now. Taking in the bonding, seeing everybody, the sights.

“Appreciating that because it could be totally different.”