As the US women’s basketball team prepares to make their debut at Paris 2024 on Monday, a prominent member of the selection committee has admitted that Caitlin Clark’s recent form could earn her a spot at the Olympics.
According to South Carolina coach and three-time Olympic gold medalist for the USA, Dawn Staley, the Indiana Fever rookie has improved significantly as the WNBA season has progressed.
U.S. National Team Selection Committee member Dawn Staley asked about Caitlin Clark.
“If we had to do it again, the way she plays, she would definitely be considered for a place in the team because she is head and shoulders above a lot of the other players.” photo.twitter.com/hMYqTsPWzc
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) July 28, 2024
“As a committee member, you’re responsible for putting together the best team of players, the best talent,” Staley told NBC’s Mike Tirico. “Caitlin is a rookie in the WNBA, she wasn’t playing bad, but she wasn’t playing the way she’s playing now. If we had to do it all over again, the way she’s playing, she would definitely be considered to make the team because she’s head and shoulders above a lot of other people.
“She shoots the ball extremely well, I mean, she’s an elite passer, she’s just got a great basketball IQ and she’s a little more experienced in the professional game in a couple of months than she was two months ago.”
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Clark entered the WNBA with much fanfare after a record-breaking college career at Iowa, and initially struggled on a mediocre Fever team. But her play has improved significantly in June and July, and Indiana, the league’s worst team in recent seasons, now sits third in the Eastern Conference. Clark also leads the WNBA in assists per game and her 19 assists in a loss to the Dallas Wings earlier this month were the most in a single game in league history.
However, Clark also leads the league in turnovers, and the U.S. Olympic team is loaded with seasoned pros with multiple WNBA All-Star appearances, so it was no surprise when she was left off the Olympic team when the roster was chosen in June. The decision has prompted a significant amount of racist, sexist and homophobic comments online from people who claim to be defending Clark, who is white, in a league where the majority of players are black and many are gay.
Clark later pushed back against online prejudice from those who claim to be her fans. “People shouldn’t be using my name to push those agendas. It’s disappointing. It’s not acceptable,” Clark said. “Treating every woman in this league with the same respect, I think, is just a basic human thing that everyone should do.”
Clark will almost certainly get her chance at the Olympics in the future. At 22, she’s part of a sparkling WNBA rookie class that includes other young American stars like Angel Reese and Cameron Brink. She’ll also almost certainly be on a winning team: The U.S. is seeking its eighth consecutive Olympic title in Paris, is undefeated in 55 Olympic games since Barcelona in 1992, and shows little sign that its reign will end anytime soon.
The Americans open their Olympic campaign against Japan on Monday night. The two teams met in the gold medal match at the last Olympics, with the US winning 90-75.