WNBA rookie sensation Caitlin Clark shared her feelings about being left off USA Basketball’s national team roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Caitlin Clark is speaking out about not making Team USA for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
Confirming multiple June 8 reports about being left off the roster, which is expected to be formally announced on June 11, the WNBA rookie sensation expressed her support for the players included.
“I’m excited for the girls that are on the team,” the Indiana Fever star told reporters in a video shared by Indianapolis Star sports reporter Chloe Peterson on June 9 on X. “I know it’s the most competitive team in the world and it could’ve gone either way.”
The 22-year-old revealed that she received a phone call with the news before the reports came out and felt “no disappointment” upon learning she was left off the roster.
Fever coach Christie Sides told reporters that Clark received the call on the team bus and texted her about it. “The thing she said was, ‘Hey coach, they woke a monster,'” Sides said, “which I thought was awesome.”
A source familiar with the decision told NBC News that 12 WNBA veterans made the cut, including Olympic newbies Kahleah Copper, 29, from the Phoenix Mercury; the Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas, 32; and the New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu, 26. The roster also includes nine players who competed in the 2020 Olympics: the Las Vegas Aces’ Kelsey Plum, 29, Jackie Young, 26, Chelsea Gray, 31, and A’ja Wilson, 27; Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, 29; the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, 27; Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd, 30; and Mercury stars Diana Taurasi, 41, and Brittney Griner, 33.
This will be Griner’s third Olympic appearance and her first professional basketball competition overseas since being freed from a Russian penal colony in December 2022. Griner, who had played on a Russian team during the WNBA off-season, spent 10 months in detention for carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.
Clark said she will be rooting for Team USA to win their eighth Olympic gold medal in women’s basketball, adding, “I was a kid who grew up watching the Olympics, so it’ll be fun to watch them.”
She also expressed hope to be included on Team USA for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “I think it just gives you something to work for,” she added. “Hopefully in four years, I can be there.”
