A nail-biting 67-66 win over host nation France on Sunday delivered the United States women’s national basketball team its eighth consecutive gold medal at the Summer Olympics. Team USA extended its incredible Olympic winning streak to 61 consecutive games, and seven players got to celebrate winning gold for at least the second time (in Diana Taurasi‘s case, for the sixth time).

Brittney Griner's gold medal pursuit for Team USA reads like a hero's journey

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner won her third Olympic gold when, a couple years ago, it didn’t seem likely that she would play basketball ever again. Following an unlawful detainment in Russia that cost her all of the 2022 WNBA season — and nearly her life, in a remote penal colony — Griner made a triumphant return to Team USA and has finally spoken out on the overwhelming emotion she displayed at Bercy Arena in Paris on Sunday.

Griner celebrates a gold that means everything

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In an Instagram collage posted on Monday, Griner admitted that her third Olympic gold hit different after her wrongful detainment, during which few were certain as to whether she would ever return to the United States — let alone play professional basketball again.

But play she did. Griner returned to the US as part of a prisoner exchange at the end of 2022, and she has since been played in consecutive WNBA All-Star games. At the Paris Games, she averaged 7 points and 4 rebounds in 14 minutes per game, and scored four points in five minutes against France in the gold medal game.

“Some love to see it … Some hate to see it … BUT YOU ALL SEE IT,” Griner wrote on Instagram.

One of the top comments underneath Griner’s Instagram post reads “and this is how you get the last laugh“, a sentiment that couldn’t be more on the nose. While some believed Griner “deserved” to be punished for transporting less than a gram of medically-prescribed cannabis oil with her to play overseas in Russia, the two-time WNBA scoring champion has come back as strong as ever and continues to win in the face of vehement hate.

“My emotions are all over the place,” Griner told ESPN on Sunday. “It means so much to me. My family didn’t think I would be here, like I’ve said before, and then to be here and win and gold for my country, representing when my country fought for me so hard to even be standing here. Yeah, this gold medal is going to hold a special place.”