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PARIS — When she was in a Russian penal colony, Brittney Griner was not sure she would ever play basketball again, let alone play in her third Olympic gold-medal game at the Paris Games.

The 33-year-old Griner, who had played professionally in Russia in addition to playing in the WNBA, was detained in a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage in February 2022. She spent nearly 10 months in detention.

“I didn’t even know if I would play basketball, honestly,” Griner said after the United States’ 85-64 semi-final win against Australia at the Bercy Arena in Paris on Friday.

“It was a long journey, a hard journey to get back into it. I’m just happy that my body was able to hold up and be able to be here.”

Griner had a prescription in the United States for medical marijuana and pleaded guilty to charges of possessing and smuggling illegal drugs, saying she had made an honest mistake.

After her release in December 2022 in a high-profile prisoner exchange involving arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” Griner returned to the WNBA for the 2023 season.

She said being back with her family on U.S. soil was what kept her basketball career alive.

“Being able to see my family again. Being able not to miss little memories, things that I took for granted that I don’t take for granted anymore,” Griner said.

“The gold (medal game) is just the icing on the cake, being in the Olympics… as well.”

A train trip to Lille, where the group stage of the Olympic tournament was played, briefly reminded Griner of her time in Russia. She had not traveled on a railway since a Russian train took her to a prison colony in 2022.

“There was a little moment of anxiety and just kind of reliving it for a second,” said Griner, whose trip to the Paris Olympics marked the first time she has traveled abroad since her Russian ordeal.

“I just focused back on all the little things that I learned from counseling, just grounding myself,” she said. “It’s been good ever since.”

The United States will face the winners of the semi-final between France and Belgium in the gold-medal game on Sunday.

–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media