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SAN ANTONIO, Texas (KTRK) — Brittney Griner was just hours away from being back on American soil Thursday night.
The WNBA star and Houston native had been detained in Russia since February, while people, politicians, and celebrities across the country advocated for her freedom. The news of a prisoner swap broke early Thursday morning.
Nine months of separation from her wife, family, and her home will end once Griner’s plane touches down at Kelly Field. From there, she’ll make the roughly 20-minute trip to Brooke Army Medical Center, where she’ll be admitted for a medical evaluation.
Video from Thursday morning was the first time Griner had been seen publicly since before she was transferred to a penal colony in Russia in November to carry out a nine-year sentence. At that time, there was no certainty surrounding if or when she would be released. That didn’t stop people in Houston from hoping.
“I don’t know if she realizes the number of people that were lifting her up in prayer, that were praying for her and saying, ‘Release Brittney Griner,’ the immense support that she had from all over,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
Tonight City Hall is lit up Red, White, and Blue in honor of Brittney Griner returning home. We are sending our prayers and support in bringing home Paul Whelan and all U.S citizens who have been wrongly detained. #BrittneyGriner pic.twitter.com/8sdlC9Ag39
%u2014 City of Houston (@HoustonTX) December 9, 2022
Turner said the deal for Griner’s freedom didn’t come without a price. He celebrated her release while remembering other Americans who still haven’t come home.
“I hope she knows that no one gave up on her. In the same vein, no one has given up on Paul Whelan. I know she’ll have an incredible story to tell at some point, but in her own time and her own way,” he said.
Griner’s family also released the following statement: