PARIS — Brittney Griner may have been just moments from a grueling, pre-Olympic practice here with her United States women’s basketball teammates, but at least some of her thoughts, as always, remained in Russia.
Not just on her own remarkable journey from an 11-month stint in a bleak, brutal penal colony to representing the United States at the Olympics, but on every other American that was still in Russian custody.
As teammates warmed up in the background here in Paris last Saturday, Griner stood on the baseline and talked about Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who had been detained since March 2023 on espionage charges that the U.S. State Department disputes.
“I [follow his case,]” Griner said. “My heart goes out to his family. If I can send a message, I would tell him, 'Don’t give up hope because we are not going to stop.' We are not going to stop. We are going to keep pushing and bring everybody home and back to their families.”
On Thursday, the United States and Russia participated in a massive, seven-country prisoner swap that included 24 adults, including Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whalen, who has been in Russian custody since 2018 on an espionage charge as well.
The swap took place at an airport in Ankara, Turkey, according to the New York Times.
On February 17, 2022, Griner was detained at the Moscow Airport with what the Russian government said was a small amount of hash oil. She thought she was heading to Russia to play professional ball in the country. Instead she became a political touchstone, eventually sentenced to nine years in prison for “drug smuggling.”
The State Department deemed her "wrongfully detained" and in December of 2022 the federal government arranged a prisoner swap for a Russian arms dealer who was 10 years into a sentence in the United States.
She has been able to return to a normal life of playing in the WNBA, raising a family with her wife and even representing the United States at the Olympics for a third time. She’s also become an advocate for raising awareness for Americans imprisoned around the world.
She said her experience in Russian custody never leaves her. She said there were days when she lost hope that she would ever get out.
“[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 experience was so challenging that some of her teammates, including longtime friend Diana Taurasi, wondered how she would handle even flying to France for the Olympics, Griner’s first international trip since regaining her freedom.
“It’s always with me,” Griner said of her memories of prison. “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 bigger 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.”
Her release was not something that was universally celebrated. There were many critics of the deal who thought a convicted arms dealer wasn’t worth a WNBA player — another layer of jarring to the experience for Griner.
Whatever others said, however, she is thankful to the United States government and grateful to be an American while advocating for the release of others who were going through the same hell she did.
As of Thursday, there are fewer of them.
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