The openly gay basketball star will be tackling her wrongful imprisonment in Russia
BY CHARLOTTE GRIMWADE, IMAGE VIA CREATIVE COMMONS
Basketball star, Brittney Griner, is working on a memoir set to be released in spring 2024. Brittney flew to Moscow in February 2022 to re-join the Russian women’s team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, only to be wrongfully arrested at the airport in Moscow on drug-related charges. Russia has been a popular playing spot for WNBA athletes, but Brittney couldn’t have expected this turn of events. She was detained for 10 months, a period that ended only after an exchange deal with the US.
Brittney wrote on Instagram that “The primary reason I traveled back to Russia for work that day was because I wanted to make my wife, family, and teammates proud. After an incredibly challenging 10 months in detainment, I am grateful to have been rescued and to be home. Readers will hear my story and understand why I’m so thankful for the outpouring of support from people across the world.” She continued to describe her arrest on 17 February as “the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life which only now am I ready to share.”
Brittney added that she hoped the book would also shed light on other Americans currently detained abroad, including the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. As her arrest took place just before Russia invaded Ukraine, it proved even more difficult to get her back home.
The memoir promises to share Brittney’s journey from Olympic champion to prisoner, finally considering her life in the present-day. It will explore her experience of wrongful detainment, the challenges with navigating the Russian legal system, and her time living in a foreign prison. It was a time of intense personal turmoil, something the book will explore in depth.
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