It wasn’t long ago when Brittney Griner didn’t know if she would ever play professional basketball again much less represent America in the Olympics. After spending 293 days in a Russian jail on drug smuggling charges, Ms. Griner makes a relatively quiet return to international competition today when the American women’s basketball team begins play in search of its eighth straight gold medal.

Ms. Griner, 33, has two gold medals from the Rio and Tokyo Olympics. But a gold from the Paris Summer Games would be special considering all she has been through.

“We’re just trying to be around her and help her and hug her,” A’ja Wilson, a forward on the American team, told reporters during a press conference in London. “At the same time, it’s BG’s world. We’re going to let her figure it out. We’re always standing by her no matter what.”

Basketball is Ms. Griner’s safe space, a sport taken from her when she was arrested at a Moscow airport in February 2022 after two vape cartridges containing less than a gram of cannabis oil were found in her luggage by Russian customs officials as she was entering the country to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg. After spending months in jail and pleading guilty in hopes of receiving leniency, she was sentenced to nine years at a Russian penal colony.

Ms. Griner, a 10-time WNBA All-Star, writes about her ordeal in her book, “Coming Home,” in which she describes squeezing her 6-foot-9 frame into a 7-by-7 jail with a hole in the ground for a toilet. She also writes about dealing with the hard Russian winters where inmates are forced to stay outside for hours during inspections, and how she was questioned about being gay and targeted by guards who threatened to house her in a men’s facility.

“I was terrified when I was thinking about going into that jail,” she said during a recent interview on MSNBC. “You start adding up the years, and I thought my parents might not be there when I got out. That’s when I started to break internally.”

Ms. Griner quickly became a political pawn as the Biden Administration worked with Russian officials to negotiate a release. After nearly a year behind bars, Ms. Griner was released in December 2022 in exchange for a Russian arms dealer. Some scoffed at the exchange including Donald Trump, who tweeted:  “What kind of deal is it to swap Brittney Griner, a basketball player who openly hates our country for the man known as “The Merchant of Death,” who is one of the biggest arms dealers anywhere in the world and responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and horrific injuries.”

Fast forward to Paris and Ms. Griner is back in her safe space, playing for the Phoenix Mercury, which drafted her first overall in 2013, and back in the Olympics where she is happy to play alongside her Phoenix teammate, 42-year-old Diana Taurasi.

“She’s my best friend, but then I’m also like in awe of her, too,” Ms. Griner said of Ms. Taurasi. “D always brings out the best in me. She tells me what I need to hear. She tells me what I don’t want to hear and she challenges me.”

The support from her WNBA peers was crucial in obtaining her release. When the American women competed in the 2022 Women’s World Cup in Australia, U.S.A. Basketball vowed no one would wear Ms. Griner’s No. 15 jersey. She’ll be wearing the jersey at 3 p.m. ET on Monday when the United States plays Japan in the first game of Group C play.  Twelve teams are divided into three four-team groups with each team playing one game against the other three teams in their group. The top two teams in each group plus two wildcards advance to the quarterfinals. In addition to the U.S. and Japan, the other two teams in Group C are Belgium and Germany.

The Americans take a 55-game Olympic unbeaten streak into Monday’s game and are looking to become the first team in any sport to win eight consecutive gold medals.

“We’re part of one of the great sports dynasties ever in terms of success,” American coach Cheryl Reese said at London. “We’re standing on an amazing culture that was built a long, long time ago. But it’s real important that this journey is special to this group. We want to grab a hold of that and make this the best experience possible.”

While the WNBA is undergoing a youth movement, Ms. Griner remains a dominant force on the court, averaging 17.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game last year and 18.6 points and 6.4 rebounds this season. She’ll be the defensive anchor on an Olympic team loaded with stars like Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum, Sabrina Ionescu, Ms. Wilson, and Ms. Taurasi, who had nothing but praise for Ms. Griner.

“What BG has gone through in the last couple of years is obviously unprecedented,” Ms. Taurasi said. “For her to be able to come back, to get on that flight to come overseas, it was a big moment for her in a lot of ways. But I’m glad she did it because she’s a remarkable person.”

Ms. Griner is also a new parent. She and her wife, Cherelle, announced the arrival of their son early this month. “He’s amazing,” said Ms. Griner, who wants to be called Pops. “My whole phone has turned into him.”