U.S. Women’s soccer team captain Megan Rapinoe took her shot as one of 17 Americans awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House to call attention to the detention of Brittney Griner. The Olympic gold medalist and equal pay activist wore her feelings on her lapel- demanding fellow Olympic athlete and WNBA star, Brittney Griner, be brought out of detention in Russia.
Rapinoe posted an Instagram story that she’d chosen a cream suit jacket with the basketball player’s initials and a flower sewn into the lapel.
https://www.instagram.com/stories/mrapinoe/2877209898883344067/
“The most important part of today,” Rapinoe captioned the photo, adding: “BG we love you.”
The Phoenix Mercury center was playing in Russia for UMMC Yekaterinburg in the Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League during the WNBA’s off-season when she was arrested Feb. 17, and has been detained since. Griner pleaded guilty earlier Thursday in a Russian court to drug charges, and could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Griner was arrested at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow when vape canisters containing cannabis oil were allegedly found in her luggage.
Both the State Department and the White House have decried the arrest and insist that Griner is wrongfully detained.