Brittney Griner’s Olympic story is a real-life hero’s journey

Brittney Griner had a moment while standing on the medal podium after she and Team USA defeated France 67-66 in a nail-biting Olympic gold medal game. She let all of the tears pour out of her while she listened to “The Star-Spangled Banner” and watched the United States’ flag rise to the top of the rafters. She stood tall with a gold medal on her neck and her hand on her heart. USA Basketball’s women’s national team had just made history winning its eighth straight gold medal and Griner had just won her third.

DeWanna Bonner, a former teammate of Griner’s and a current forward for the Connecticut Sun, had foreshadowed the moving scene that took place in Paris on Sunday for the 33-year-old Griner. “I’m pretty sure to hear that national anthem and that gold medal going around her neck is gonna mean so much more to her than probably anybody else in that arena,” Bonner told me July 19, the day before the WNBA All-Star Game.

Why did winning in Paris and keeping Team USA’s dynastic gold medal streak alive mean so much for Griner?

“My country literally saved my life,” she said during WNBA All-Star weekend in Phoenix before flying to Europe for her third Olympic Games. “And now I’m able to represent them again, and it just means so much more. So much more.”

Two years ago, Griner couldn’t have imagined that she’d be winning a gold medal for the U.S. or even playing basketball at all. She was still reeling from a nine-year prison sentence from Russian Judge Anna Sotnikova after she was found with two cartridges of hash oil at a Moscow airport. Griner, wrongly detained in Russia, thought she’d still be serving that full nine-year sentence. She was finally released in December 2022, after spending 293 days as a Russian prisoner, when the U.S. swapped her for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

What Griner has gone through in the past couple of years has been nothing short of a “hero’s journey” that is as extraordinary as any fable or piece of Greek mythology. It sounds too remarkable to be true, but it’s a moment in American history that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Griner will leave this Olympics as an American hero and a public servant not just for what she did on the court during the United States’ six-game Olympic run, but also for how she has influenced the United States off the court. What makes an American hero? Sacrifice of self, cultural influence and service to community, according to journalist Antonio Olivo. Let’s see how Griner fits the bill.

While Griner was detained, and after she returned to the U.S., she and her wife, Cherelle, raised substantial awareness across the U.S. about what the families of wrongfully detained Americans go through. The partnership that the Griners have with the Bring Our Families Home campaign was instrumental in making sure there was pressure on the White House not to forget about the other Americans detained abroad.

She and Cherelle were transported back to 2022 when they heard that President Joe Biden had pulled off yet another prisoner swap and brought home Americans Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva.

On Aug. 1, she and Cherelle were transported back to 2022 when they heard the news that President Joe Biden had pulled off yet another prisoner swap and brought home Americans Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva. They got the news just as Griner and Team USA were about to play Belgium in the group stage.

“It’s a great day,” Griner said after Team USA won that game 87-73. “Head over heels happy for the families right now. Any day that Americans come home is a win.”

Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, Griner talked to NBC News’ Liz Kreutz, who asked her what she wanted people watching the Olympics to know about her.

“That BG is locked in and ready to go,” Griner replied. “I’m happy. I’m in a great place, I’m representing my country, the country that fought for me to come back. And I’m going to represent well.”

Griner has represented well but not in the typical way that WNBA fans are used to. On what is the hardest basketball team in the world to make, Griner didn’t start for Team USA in the Olympics and averaged around 14 minutes per game while averaging 7.3 points per game. She wasn’t the No. 1 option, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t make an impact. When A’ja Wilson’s shots weren’t falling, Griner would position herself to get the putback. When Team Nigeria’s top scorer, Ezinne Kalu, picked off a pass meant for Griner, the 6-foot-9 center with a 7-foot, 3.5-inch wingspan didn’t stop. She ran as fast as she could and blocked Kalu’s layup on the other end.

Griner thrived doing the little things rather than every play being run through her. Heroes don’t consciously think of themselves and don’t stray from their sense of commitment.

Excellent pursuit angle & ability in changing ends of the floor here for Brittney Griner, into the chase down block pic.twitter.com/5bZ2RLMsL6

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Overseas for the first time since being wrongfully detained, Griner put her teammates and the fans who graciously sought her autograph above herself. In an interview before Team USA’s semifinal game against Australia on Friday, head coach Cheryl Reeve touched on how Griner always makes time for the people around her.

“I think that the reception that she gets and the warmth that she feels for her is something that is incredibly meaningful that she’ll always remember,” Reeve said. “I think what she went through we all sort of haven’t forgotten. … It’s a part of her every day. That will never leave her.”

American heroes make major impacts on the nation, on society and in their communities. In addition to raising awareness about a political issue that wasn’t previously getting enough attention in the news, Griner’s presence and desire to tell her story affects young women all over, and especially young women who don’t fit feminine stereotypes.

In Griner’s memoir ‘Coming Home,’ which details her ordeal in Russia and her adjustment back to American life, she says she believed she had let down her family.

“Women come in all different shapes and sizes, all different packages, and so for her to share that, regardless of what people say or what people see, she is just a different brand of woman,” said Jonquel Jones, a friend of Griner’s and a player for the New York Liberty. “I know that there’s gonna be kids out there that want to be able to see themselves in somebody like her, that can inspire so many.”

Griner’s intent to serve the communities around her will continue as the WNBA’s Players Association determines if it will opt out of its current collective bargaining agreement. According to The Ringer’s Mirin Fader, Griner has taken more of an interest in working with the Players Association to help shape the future of her union, including seeking higher salaries so that WNBA players don’t have to go to other countries to make money in the league’s offseason like she did.

In Griner’s most recent memoir, “Coming Home,” which details her ordeal in Russia and her adjustment back to American life, she explains that she believed she had let down her family as a result of accidentally carrying hash oil, which she’d used for the chronic pain she developed as an athlete.

“The Griner name was now stained around the globe,” she wrote. “Dope head. Drug dealer. Dumb. I hurt because I knew I handed the world a weapon.”

But the Griner name is anything but “stained.” It’s a name that ought to be uttered with honor. The White House should consider honoring Griner with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a high honor that recognizes “prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”

Griner has done all of the above.