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 true 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 was inevitable that Clark would propel U.S. women’s basketball to a level it so richly deserves but has never attained: coverage from broadcasters and news organizations not only in the U.S. but around the world, headlines every day, and most importantly, a vastly increased respect from a still male-dominated international sports media that has for decades focused almost exclusively on the U.S. men’s basketball team rather than the women, who are so good they haven’t lost since 1992. Clark had been setting records for TV ratings and attendance in her first eye-popping month in the WNBA as she had in NCAA basketball.
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