Brittney Griner Scores Spot At Paris 2024 Olympic Training Camp With USA Basketball Team

The U.S. women’s basketball team announced that its training camp roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris includes the three-time gold medalist Brittney Griner and her legendary teammate Diana Taurasi. Team USA is expected to begin training in Atlanta this coming week. 

Griner spent 10 months imprisoned in Russia after being arrested at a Moscow airport with less than a gram of cannabis oil in her suitcase and had been playing in Russia during the offseason for seven years. Her February 2022 arrest occurred several days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Following her release on December 8, 2022, in exchange for Russian arms dealer and Putin ally Viktor Bout, Griner said in her first public press conference, “I’m never going overseas to play again unless I’m representing my country at the Olympics. If I make that team, that would be the only reason I would leave U.S. soil.”

It Seems That Moment Has Arrived

The six-time WNBA All-Star, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was named to a 16-player roster for training camp and exhibitions expected to begin this coming week. The roster includes some, but not all, of the most prominent 2024 Olympic hopefuls. The 12-woman team for Paris is expected to be chosen this coming spring. 

Griner’s Olympic History

Griner led Team USA to victory at the Rio Olympics in 2016. In 2020, she was named to the national team for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where she scored 30 points, the second-highest total in an Olympic game in U.S. women’s history. That year, the Americans beat Japan 90-75.

Even without Griner and other veteran stars, the U.S. women’s team won the world championship last year, thus qualifying for the 2024 Paris games, where it will compete for an eighth consecutive Olympic title.

Meanwhile, Off The Court 

Brittney Griner was honored last Friday with the WNBA Cares Community Assist Award for her volunteer work.

The WNBA said it was Griner’s “extensive work in championing the safe return of wrongful detainees overseas and helping marginalized communities in Phoenix” that earned her the season-long recognition.

According to the league, Griner’s efforts with the “Bring Our Families Home” and the “BG Heart & Sole Shoe Drive” are initiatives that have made significant impact on the lives of others. 

Griner was also named one of the 100 Most Influential People Of 2023 by Time magazine in 2023.

Photo courtesy of the WNBA