Caitlin Clark is lovable. It’s okay to detest Caitlin Clark. You may adore her Iowan heritage. You can detest her Iowan heritage. Because she is white, you may find her attractive or repulsive. The same holds for sexual orientation. You can either adore or despise the media’s obsession with her. Either you love or loathe the historic TV ratings and sell-out crowds. You may find her interviews endearing or offensive.
However, one thing is certain that we are all aware of:
Players who have been mostly neglected by the sports media at every Summer Olympic Games I have covered since 1984 would have finally received the attention they deserve from a national and international audience if Caitlin Clark had been a member of the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team in 2024.
With national hero Clark on the team heading into the Games, I believe the main narratives for the Americans in Paris (as well as a good number of foreign media) would have been these: Simone Biles first, Katie Ledecky second 3. Caitlin Clarke.
That’s the overall idea; you might add an athlete or two here and there, such as the United States women’s soccer team or the United States men’s basketball team. It would have been inevitable if Clark had kept breaking attendance and TV ratings records during her first eye-popping month in the WNBA, just as she did in NCAA basketball: she would have propelled American women’s basketball to a level it so richly deserves but has never reached, including daily headlines, coverage from news organizations both domestically and internationally, and most importantly, tremendously elevated regard from a foreign sports media still dominated by men, which has spent decades focusing almost entirely on the U.S. men’s basketball team rather than the women, who are so good that they haven’t lost since 1992.
However, to follow Clark would have meant to follow far more than just Clark. She would have presented the complete U.S. squad to all those readers and watchers of the Olympics, many of whom are not great sports fans and have never watched a women’s Olympic basketball game.
Have you never seen Breanna Stewart play for either of her two past Olympic teams? Because of America’s fascination—even obsession—with Clark, you would have been watching her this summer. If Brittney Griner is well, the same applies.
