Caitlin Clark gets chance to fast-track her way into Olympics

Caitlin Clark fever – pun intended – has gone from the college game to the WNBA and now, potentially, it’s going international.

Clark’s rookie season with the Indiana Fever will serve as a tryout for the U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team, per Doug Feinberg of the AP. She missed the squad’s most recent training camp after leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Final Four but will get another chance, said Jennifer Rizzotti, chair of the women’s basketball selection committee:

You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it’s for now or the future. We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It’s got to be a combination of an entire body of work.

Caitlin Clark continues to help push women’s basketball into the national consciousness

Indiana selected Clark with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft after a college career in which she averaged 28.4 points and 8.2 assists. Breanna Stewart and Candace Parker both made the Olympic team after lighting up the league during their respective rookie campaigns.

The U.S. Women will head to Paris trying to win their eighth consecutive Gold Medal. April’s training camp featured WNBA stars like A’Ja Wilson, Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu. Clark said she’s looking forward to earning her way into the squad and onto the world stage:

It’s where I want to be … 5-on-5 is the goal and the dream. To play with the best in the world and against the best in the world, you can’t script it better than that.