A new report by a writer who investigated the 2024 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team finds that Olympic officials allegedly conspired to prevent WNBA star Caitlin Clark from joining the team, suggesting that she “never had a chance” to be selected to represent the U.S.A.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan is now saying that “the powers that be” worked in unison to exclude Clark from the 2024 Olympics.
“The powers that be in the women’s game did not want Caitlin Clark on their team. No matter how well she was playing, and no matter how convinced most basketball experts were that she was not only getting better daily, but also playing very well in the moment, and no matter how much USA Basketball indicated Clark was being given a shot to make the team, she never had a chance,” Brennan says in her new book, On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports.
Brennan rests her claim on several points. The first was that the team was never really looking for 12 players, as one spot was already locked in for Diana Taurasi, who was winding down her basketball career and was set to appear for a record sixth consecutive time on the U.S. team.
“This meant 11 spots, not 12, were open and available. Taurasi was a lock… and, frankly, she’d be going even if she was a little injured and could only play sparingly. To say this wasn’t the way an Olympic selection process should be run is an enormous understatement,” Brennan says.
But a second reason may have been more consequential. According to Brennan, Olympic officials claimed they were concerned that Clark’s fans would be upset that she would not be playing entire games, as the other players would also receive their rotations in the games, thereby limiting Clark’s court time.
The committee angered Clark’s fans regardless by leaving her off the team.
The Olympic officials did offer Clark a spot on the three-on-three team, but she politely declined the lesser offer.
Clark had said at the time that being snubbed by the Olympic team “will definitely motivate me my entire career.”
“I don’t want to be there because I’m somebody that can bring attention,” Clark said back in December of last year. “I love that for the game of women’s basketball. But at the same time, I want to be there because they think I’m good enough. I don’t want to be some little person that is kind of dragged around for people to cheer about and only watch because I’m sitting on the bench. That whole narrative kind of upset me. Because that is not fair, it’s disrespectful to the people that were on the team, that had earned it and were really good. And it’s also disrespectful to myself.”
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