Brittney Griner is one of the most well known WNBA players of all time – but for the last three months she has been sitting in a detention cell in Russia facing drug charges that are punishable for up to 10 years. On the heels of the prisoner exchange that released former marine Trevor Reed, the US government is accelerating the process to bring Brittney home.

VICE News correspondent Alexis Johnson meets with Trevor’s parents and Kimberly St Julian Varnon, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, to examine the possible fate of an American sports star stuck in the middle of the new Cold War.

This episode was produced by Steph Brown. It was reported by Alexis Johnson, Katy Sheward and Lyle Kendrick for VICE on Showtime – you can see the documentary version on Showtime now. New episodes of VICE on Showtime air on Sundays at 8pm EST.

VICE News Reports is hosted by Arielle Duhaime-Ross and produced by Sophie Kazis, Jen Kinney, Steph Brown, Sam Eagan, Adreanna Rodriguez, and Adriana Tapia. Our senior producer is Sam Greenspan. Stephanie Kariuki and Ashley Cleek are supervising producers. Sound design and music composition by Steve Bone, Pran Bandi, and Kyle Murdock. Mixing by Evan Sutton.

Our Executive Producer is Adizah Eghan. Janet Lee is Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio. And Kate Osborn is VP of VICE Audio.

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Brittney Griner’s Path Home

VICE News Reports