When Brittney Griner returned to a WNBA game for the first time since being detained for 10 months as a prisoner in Russia, she said the national anthem “definitely hit different” — comparing it to the scene at the Olympics where there are gold medals and there are flags, with the song playing in that background, according to the Associated Press.
That all materialized Sunday, when Griner and the rest of Team USA were honored following their one-point win over France to clinch the gold medal for women’s basketball in the 2024 Olympics.
And while the anthem played, Griner, who called for the WNBA to stop playing the anthem at games in 2020 amid nationwide protests against racial injustice, became emotional and started crying while standing alongside her teammates.
“It means so much to me,” Griner told reporters Sunday, according to USA TODAY. “I didn’t think I’d be here, like I’ve said before. And then to be here winning gold for my country, representing, when my country fought so hard for me to even be standing here — yeah, this gold is going to hold a special place.”
Griner wasn’t a focal point of Team USA this summer, only playing five minutes in the final Sunday and collecting four points and two rebounds, but she still contributed to an Olympic winning streak that has now reached 61 games and eight consecutive gold medals.
There was a 10-month stretch in 2022 where experiencing that was far from guaranteed, though.
Griner was detained in Russia that February on drug charges after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were discovered in her luggage at a Moscow airport, leading to a harrowing stretch in prison — which she detailed for the first time in a May interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, then in her memoir released later that month — that ended with a prisoner swap in December 2022.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
Prior to her detainment and eventual return to the United States, Griner had advocated for the WNBA to stop playing the national anthem at games in 2020 and revealed that she planned to protest even if the league continued to play it, according to the Washington Post.
She said her stance changed after her experience in Russia and after her return to the United States, where she has since returned to being a staple in Mercury’s lineup.
“You have the right to protest, the right to be able to speak out, question, challenge and do all these things,” Griner told reporters in 2023, according to Fox News. “What I went through and everything, it just means a little bit more to me now. So I want to be able to stand. I was literally in a cage [in Russia] and could not stand the way I wanted to.
“Just being able to hear my national anthem, see my flag, I definitely want to stand. Now everybody that will not stand or not come out, I totally support them 100 percent. That’s our right, as an American in this great country.”
