Brittney Griner Details Her Time In Russian Captivity In Upcoming Memoir

WNBA star Brittney Griner is ready to detail the traumatic time she experienced being held captive in Russia.

The Associated Press reported the professional basketball player is working on a memoir where fans can get insight on her trip to Moscow in 2022. Griner is preparing to share about the drug-related arrest at the Moscow airport which lead to her being detained in a Russian prison for nearly 10 months.

“That day (in February) was the beginning of an unfathomable period in my life which only now am I ready to share,” Griner said in a statement released on Tuesday by Alfred A. Knopf.

“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,” the 6-foot-9 two-time Olympic gold medalist added.

According to Knopf, the book will be intimate and moving, disclosing “in vivid detail her harrowing experience of her wrongful detainment (as classified by the State Department) and the difficulty of navigating the byzantine Russian legal system in a language she did not speak.”

“Griner also describes her stark and surreal time living in a foreign prison and the terrifying aspects of day-to-day life in a women’s penal colony,” the announcement read. “At the heart of the book, Griner highlights the personal turmoil she experienced during the near ten-month ordeal and the resilience that carried her through to the day of her return to the United States last December.”

Griner mentioned she wanted her story to raise awareness of other Americans, like corporate security executive Paul Whelan, who have been detained overseas.

Griner’s memoir, which is currently untitled, is scheduled to release in spring 2024.