PHOENIX (Reuters) – U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner relied on her inner strength to return to the court after being detained nearly 10 months in Russia, the Phoenix Mercury center said on Thursday in her first news conference since she returned home.
The two-times Olympic gold medallist was released from one of Russia’s most notorious penal colonies in a high-profile prisoner exchange with the United States late last year after she was arrested in February 2022.
“I’m no stranger to hard times,” said Griner, at an emotional news conference.
“Just digging deep, honestly, you’re going to be faced with adversities throughout your life. This was a pretty big one.”
Griner was taken into custody at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and subsequently convicted of narcotics possession and trafficking after she was found to have been carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.
She said she was prescribed medical cannabis in the United States for a chronic injury and never intended to break the law. U.S. officials said she was wrongly detained and was being used as a political pawn amid increasingly strained relations with Russia.
She thanked U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday for helping negotiate her release and said looking at photos of her family helped her keep going while she was detained.
“I was aware of the efforts and everything that was going on,” said Griner. “It made me have hope.”
Griner pledged to dedicate herself to bringing home other Americans detained abroad and announced she and the Phoenix Mercury would partner with Bring Our Families Home to champion the cause.
She said her message to other American detainees was: “Stay strong, keep fighting, don’t give up.”
(Reporting by Liliana Salgado in Phoenix and Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
