Detailing Team USA star’s ordeal ahead of Olympics

Geopolitics around the world have always factored into the backdrop of the modern Olympic Games, and there is perhaps no American athlete who represents this better than Brittney Griner will this year.

Griner has been an Olympian with Team USA women’s basketball twice before, but she will experience the 2024 Paris Olympics with an entirely different perspective. The Phoenix Mercury star, who emerged as a dominant force at Baylor over a decade ago, recently returned from a toe injury and will anchor the interior for Team USA for the third-straight Olympics. In her last appearance with Team USA, Griner set a new Olympic finals record scoring 30 points during the 2020 gold medal game in Tokyo.

Between now and then, however, Griner was arrested and imprisoned in Russia for nearly 10 months in an ordeal that eventually involved President Joe Biden, the state department, the Kremlin and a notorious Russian arms dealer.

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What exactly happened? Here’s what you need to know ahead of Griner’s return to the international stage in Paris:

Brittney Griner Russia arrest, explained

Griner was detained on drug-related charges in February 2022 at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside of Moscow while traveling overseas. Customs officials in Russia alleged that they found vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis in Griner’s luggage, which would carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

“We are aware of the situation with Brittney Griner in Russia and are in close contact with her, her legal representation in Russia, her family, her teams, and the WNBA and NBA,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said at the time. “As this is an ongoing legal matter, we are not able to comment further on the specifics of her case but can confirm that as we work to get her home, her mental and physical health remain our primary concern.”

Griner’s arrest came one week before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine officially began.

REQUIRED READING: In first Olympics since Russian imprisonment, Brittney Griner more grateful than ever

Why was Brittney Griner in Russia?

Griner was traveling to rejoin the Russian club team UMMC Ekaterinburg, with whom she had played during the WNBA offseason from 2015 through 2022. It is common practice for WNBA players to play overseas in the offseason to help supplement their salaries from the U.S.-based league.

Griner has since said she was “never going overseas to play again” in an April 2023 news conference.

“A lot of us go over there to make an income to support our families. … That’s why I was there,” Griner said. “I’m hoping our league continues to grow and with as many people in here right now covering this, I hope you continue to bring exposure to us. … It’s a shame we have to leave our families.”

Griner did offer one caveat to that statement, however: to represent Team USA at the Olympics.

“If I make that team, that would be the only time I would leave U.S. soil and that’s to represent the USA,” she said at the time.

REQUIRED READING: Why is Russia banned from Paris Olympics? Can Russian athletes compete?

Brittney Griner sentence

Griner ended up spending nearly 10 months imprisoned in Russia. In August 2022, she pleaded guilty in what was viewed as a strategic legal move; she was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Griner’s appeal of the sentence was also unsuccessful, denied by a Russian court on Oct. 25, 2022.

Brittney Griner penal colony conditions

By November 2022, Griner was transferred to a Russian penal colony in Mordovia, roughly 370 miles southeast of Moscow. Griner described the grim conditions on the penal farm in her memoir, “Coming Home,” which was released in May.

“The mattress had a huge blood stain on it and they give you these thin two sheets, so you’re basically laying on bars,” Griner said in an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts.

Griner also noted that prisoners were only allowed one toilet paper roll a month and given toothpaste that had expired 15 years prior. Since the penal farm was considered a work camp, Griner said she was ordered to cut fabric for military uniforms. The frigid conditions inside forced her to cut her dreadlocks.

“It just had to happen,” Griner said. “We had spiders above my bed, making a nest. My dreads started to freeze. They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You got to do what you got to do to survive.”

Brittney Griner released in prisoner exchange for Viktor Bout

In May 2022, the U.S. government announced that it considered Griner to be “wrongfully detained” by Russia. Experts at the time noted it was a significant shift in tone and meant the United States would attempt to negotiate Griner’s release.

Later that month, Griner’s wife, Cherelle, appeared on “Good Morning America” and asked President Biden interview to “use his power” to get her wife released from Russia.

On July 4, 2022, a few days after Griner’s trial in Russia began, Griner sent a letter to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and wrote that she was “terrified I might be here forever.”

By the end of month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States had made a “significant” prisoner swap offer to Russia in exchange for Griner’s release. CNN reported that it involved trading Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer also known as the “Merchant of Death” — serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States — for Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, the latter of whom was also imprisoned in Russia after being accused of being an American spy.

It took until Dec. 8, 2022 for a deal to be reached. On Dec. 8, Russia freed Griner in exchange for Bout. Whelan remains in Russia. Griner re-signed with the Mercury in February and returned to the WNBA court for the 2023 season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brittney Griner Russia arrest: What to know before 2024 Paris Olympics