Brittney Griner composed herself within the restroom. All she wanted was a second earlier than she was able to rejoice.

Then the opening notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” performed. Tears streamed down Griner’s face as she stood on prime of the medal stand along with her third Olympic gold medal round her neck.

“This gold medal goes to carry a particular place amongst the 2 others I used to be lucky to win,” Griner stated.

In her first worldwide match since coming back from a virtually 10-month detention in Russia, Griner helped the US to a historic eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal. After being launched by a prisoner swap, receiving letters from followers worldwide and getting the chance to return to basketball, Griner had a sense her eyes would begin to water a little bit bit on the rostrum if the US gained. However the depth of emotion she felt as she wiped tears from her eyes after the anthem appeared to shock even her.

“My nation fought for me to get again and I used to be capable of carry residence gold for my nation,” Griner stated. “There’s simply no larger feeling being right here on the very best stage that you could be on.”

Griner averaged 7.3 factors and 4.3 rebounds off the bench through the Olympics. She scored 4 factors within the remaining that got here all the way down to the ultimate shot as the US survived for a one-point victory over France. Regardless of how a lot she performed all through the match, Griner was energetic and engaged along with her teammates, encouraging them on the sideline in timeouts and hyping them up on the courtroom.

“If you consider somebody that’s a warrior, that’s a trooper, that’s going to be there it doesn’t matter what and goes to be constant and a real skilled, it’s BG,” Olympic most precious participant A’ja Wilson stated. “She confirmed that tonight. She exhibits that all the time.”

Griner has made her reintegration to on a regular basis life look seamless. She returned in December 2022 and appeared at main occasions, together with the Met Gala and the Tremendous Bowl. She was again on the courtroom for the start of the 2023 WNBA season and performed in 31 video games whereas averaging 17.5 factors and 6.3 rebounds. She revealed a e-book detailing her expertise within the penal colony the place she labored making army uniforms.

However U.S. head coach Cheryl Reeve knew she wanted to maintain checking on Griner. Griner was imagined to take part within the crew’s Olympic qualifier video games in Belgium in February, however she “perhaps simply wanted a little bit extra time,” Reeve stated.

“Greater than what she thought.”

Boarding the worldwide flight was an enormous second for Griner, longtime teammate Diana Taurasi stated. The primary prepare journey, Griner stated, was tough. The final prepare she rode abroad was a jail prepare.

“If you see BG across the crew, her outward [looks like] she’s OK,” Reeve stated. “ that inside, there’s rather a lot happening there, however she all the time presents as her best possible model of herself regardless of all that she’s been by. And he or she is grateful to be right here.

Reeve repeated it for emphasis: “She is so grateful to be right here.”

Griner credit remedy for serving to her get again onto the courtroom. She praised her teammates for assist all through the Olympics in France, which started in Lille, a metropolis close to the northern French border close to Belgium, and resulted in Paris the place the crew performed three knockout rounds.

After surviving the hardest take a look at of all of them — a bodily France crew fueled by its residence crowd — Griner hugged her spouse, Cherelle. She plans to rejoice the win by taking a photograph of the couple’s new child son with the gold medal. Then Griner will get again to work.

The Phoenix Mercury return from the WNBA Olympic break with back-to-back video games on Aug. 16-17.