Caitlin Clark snubbed from Olympic roster partly due to potential backlash over limited playing time: report
Caitlin Clark snubbed from Olympic roster partly due to potential backlash over limited playing time: report
USA Basketball’s expected decision to leave Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark off the roster for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was met with questions Saturday morning, but one report shed some light on the decision.
Citing two sources, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan reported one factor in omitting Clark from the women’s national team was the concern about how the former Iowa star’s fans would react to her playing time in the Olympics, which would likely have been limited.
Reports of the decision were met with fierce backlash on social media, and, as Brennan points out, seemingly confirmed the narrative that not everyone in the WNBA is pleased with Clark’s popularity.
“If true, that would be an extraordinary admission of the existence of real tension that the old guard of women’s basketball harbors for this multimillion-dollar sensation,” Brennan wrote of the sources’ knowledge.
Clark was invited to the national team’s training camp in April, but because of the Iowa Hawkeyes’ success in reaching the women’s final in the NCAA tournament, she was unable to attend.
Nine other Olympians were invited to camp, including five-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury, who is expected to return. Fever teammate Aliyah Boston was also invited to join the national team’s training roster in April.
