In 2020, Brittney Griner, who had called for the WNBA not to play the national anthem and walked off the court before it, spoke out amid racial unrest following George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s deaths.
After being imprisoned in Russia for nearly 10 months in 2022, her perspective on “The Star-Spangled Banner” shifted. At the Paris Olympics, Griner, wearing a gold medal, was emotional as the anthem played.
“I didn’t think I would be here,” she said of the 2024 Paris Olympics, via Reuters.
