Would Caitlin Clark break the NCAA scoring record? Would she declare for the WNBA draft? Would he lead the Iowa Hawkeyes back to the Final Four?
Clark has faced a number of burning questions since last fall. And “yes” was the answer to all of them.
But another question remains about the Indiana Fever guard who was picked No. 1 overall in the WNBA draft: Will she make the 2024 U.S. Olympic team?
As we approach the start of the WNBA season (the first few weeks of which will serve as Clark's proving ground for the Paris Games), we look at the process and how USA Basketball history could give an indication of Clark's odds. to achieve success. the team.
What are the basic concepts?
Twelve teams will compete in the women's 5-on-5 Olympic tournament: the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Serbia and Spain. The roster size for each is 12. The Americans are going for their eighth consecutive gold medal and 10th gold medal overall in the Olympics, which launched women's basketball competition in 1976.
As of 2021, 3×3 basketball also became an Olympic sport, but Clark is not in the team pool. She is in the pool for 5 on 5. However, she was unable to participate in the Americans' last training camp, which was held at the same time as the Final Four in Cleveland, where Clark and Iowa were competing. There will not be another camp before before the American team is chosen.
USA Basketball has not set a specific date to announce team members, other than to say it won't be before June 1. The 2021 team was named on June 21, just over a month before the United States' first Olympic game. in Japan on July 27.
Because Clark was not at the April camp or any previous camp for the senior national team (she has played on USA Basketball youth teams), she has to make her case with her play in the WNBA. The Fever open the season Tuesday in Connecticut.
Who chooses the members of the US team?
Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who has extensive experience in US basketball, coaches the US women's national team. She will provide feedback on the team's composition, but will not select players. That's done by a committee chaired by Connecticut Sun team president Jennifer Rizzotti, a former UConn and WNBA player who also coached for many years.
Joining Rizzotti on the committee are: South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, the former U.S. Olympic coach who also played in three Olympic Games; Dan Padover, general manager of the Atlanta Dream; Bethany Donaphin, WNBA chief league operations officer; Seimone Augustus and Delisha Milton-Jones, both retired WNBA champions and Olympic athletes.
Have there been any controversial decisions regarding the American women's roster?
In women's soccer, the Olympics are very important and virtually all of the top American players are competing to be on the team. The size and composition of the selection committee has varied over the years. But can members completely divorce themselves from possible loyalties to any current or former player/teammate?
The hope is that they will be as objective as possible and that the group will balance favoritism/grudges. But controversial omissions still occur. Just ask Nneka Ogwumike, who placed at the bottom of the rankings in three Olympic cycles.
Ogwumike, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 draft and 2016 MVP and league champion, played extensively for USA Basketball (including in the FIBA World Cup), but was left off the Olympic team in 2012, 2016 and 2021. Of the snubs in the USA Basketball history On the women's side (there have been some great ones), what happened to Ogwumike was the worst.
Will the selection be controversial this year? Clark's overwhelming popularity has also made her unpopular with some fans, which often happens in sports when a particular young athlete receives a lot of attention. The committee can't make everyone happy and has a lot to consider.
If Clark plays well to begin her WNBA career, can USA Basketball really not include a player who has been one of the biggest stars in all of sports in 2024 and who could benefit from learning more about the international game later in life? 22 years? Or will the committee strongly favor previous Olympic experience?
How difficult will it be for Clark to make the US team?
Very hard. Let's look at the guards, the group Clark is trying to figure out.
Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury, trying to make her sixth Olympic team, is entering her 20th season in the WNBA and will turn 42 in June. She has battled injuries in recent years and played in 26 of the Mercury's 40 games last season.
Taurasi's two decades of experience on the national team can benefit an American group that doesn't have much preparation time. But the Americans won the 2022 FIBA World Cup without Taurasi or Sue Bird, a five-time Olympian who retired that year. Still, Taurasi seems like a strong bet to be in the Olympics again.
Other guards who have already won Olympic gold, whether in 5-on-5 or 3-on-3, include Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces; Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm, Ariel Atkins of the Washington Mystics and Allisha Gray of the Dallas Wings.
New York Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Phoenix's Kahleah Copper, were on the team that won the FIBA World Cup 2022 gold medal. Laney-Hamilton and Copper are guard-forwards who can play the 3 position, as can Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard and the Aces' Young.
Clark spent most of his time as a point guard at Iowa and can also play shooting guard. But to make it to these Olympics, she will have to be chosen from players who have been in the professional game longer than she has.
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Caitlin Clark scores 21 points in her Fever debut
Caitlin Clark drops 21 points in Fever's debut as they fall to the Wings 79-76.
Does Team USA ever prioritize youth and the future on the Olympic team?
Yes, but consider this: For the last seven Olympic Games, from 1996 to 2021, the youngest player on the US women's basketball team was from UConn or Tennessee. Clark, who turned 22 in January, would be the youngest player on this Olympic team if she makes it. She would buck that long-standing trend, since she graduated from Iowa.
UConn and Tennessee have combined to win 19 national championships, so it's understandable why they have had so many Olympians of all ages. But with talent spreading across the country (UConn's last NCAA title was in 2016 and Tennessee's in 2008), more future “younger Olympians” may come from other schools as well.
In fact, that seems likely this year, even if Clark doesn't make it. Her Fever teammate Aliyah Boston is 22 years old and in her second season in the WNBA after being the No. 1 pick and the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2023. The South Carolina graduate is just 42 days older Like Clark, he is considered a strong bet to make the Olympic team.
Who is the youngest to play on the US women's Olympic team?
Old Dominion point guard Nancy Lieberman, who turned 18 about two weeks before the 1976 Montreal Games. Fellow ODU player Anne Donovan (1980) was also 18, but was unable to play in the Moscow Games due to to the United States boycott.
Until the 1992 Barcelona Games, when the International Olympic Committee finally stopped requiring amateur status for competitors, the United States men's and women's basketball teams were composed mostly of college students or players who had just completed their studies. university students. The NBA Dream Team changed everything in 1992. The American women also fielded a much older team that year (all the players had finished college and were competing professionally overseas), but that was the last American team that didn't win the Olympic Games. They took the bronze.
Staley, fresh out of Virginia in 1992 as a two-time national player of the year, did not make the 1992 Olympic team at age 22. Her first Olympic team was in 1996. And the WNBA was launched in 1997.
Since then, three players taken No. 1 overall in the WNBA draft in an Olympic year have been named to Team USA: UConn's Diana Taurasi (2004), Tennessee's Candace Parker (2008) and UConn's Breanna Stewart (2016). But Stanford's Ogwumike (2012) was not. All four won the WNBA rookie of the year award. (LSU's Sylvia Fowles also made the 2008 Olympic team as a WNBA rookie, but she is six months older than Parker.)
The other youngest players on the Olympic team since 1996: UConn's Rebecca Lobo (1996), Tennessee's Chamique Holdsclaw (2000), UConn's Maya Moore (2012) and UConn's Napheesa Collier (2021). The WNBA had not yet started when Lobo ended up at UConn in 1995; Holdsclaw and Moore were in their second WNBA seasons and Collier was in his third.
Now, we wait to see if Clark will be the WNBA's fourth No. 1 pick in an Olympic year to make Team USA.
