After scoring essentially the most factors in NCAA basketball historical past, changing into the highest choose within the WNBA draft, and tying rookie data in her first month within the execs, Caitlin Clark was on such a roll in 2024 that the upcoming Olympic Video games appeared like they had been going to comply with in line. So when information broke this weekend that Clark reportedly didn’t make the roster, it was a jolt to a great deal of basketball followers who had been hoping to see her signify Crew USA on the game’s largest stage.
However Clark took the information in stride, saying that she understood that the roster choice might have gone both method, and that, in the end, she was excited for the gamers who made it.
“[There’s] truthfully no disappointment,” Clark advised IndyStar reporters after a coaching session in Indianapolis on Sunday, sharing that she acquired a name from USA Basketball with the information “at the start got here out.” “I believe it simply offers me one thing to work for…. Hopefully someday I might be there. I believe it’s just a bit extra motivation, and also you keep in mind that. And hopefully in 4 years, when 4 years comes again round, I might be there.”
Regardless of her 2024 resume, making the Olympic staff as a 22-year-old was one thing that was at all times going to be difficult. For one, whereas she was invited to USA Basketball’s coaching camp in April, she wasn’t in a position to attend—that was when the Iowa Hawkeyes had been battling via the Remaining 4. As former WNBA participant and ESPN broadcaster Rebecca Lobo defined to Get Up, these coaching camps (which really kicked into gear three years in the past) are integral as a result of they permit the athletes to play collectively, study the coach’s system, and familiarize themselves with a few of their worldwide opponents. “Caitlin Clark, via no fault of her personal, was not in a position to take part in any of these coaching camps,” Lobo stated. “So she didn’t have that probability.”
And though the official roster hasn’t been launched but by the US Olympic Committee, The Athletic studies that its alternatives skew in favor of professional expertise. In truth, 26-year-old Sabrina Ionescu is slated to be the youngest on the staff.
Whereas Clark describes the roster skip as “motivation” for the subsequent Olympics cycle, it additionally brings one other silver lining of kinds: practically a month’s hiatus from any video games, for the reason that WNBA will break from mid-July to mid-August. That’ll be big for Clark, who transitioned just about proper from faculty March Insanity to Fever coaching camp with out lacking a beat.
“I’ve liked competing each single second, however it’s going to be an incredible month for my physique, to begin with, to get relaxation, get wholesome, and get a little bit time away from basketball and the craziness of the whole lot that’s been happening,” Clark advised reporters. “[It’s] an incredible alternative for myself to get within the weight room, to work on the courtroom, and work on issues that I wish to get higher at that I perhaps didn’t have time going from faculty to the professional season.”
Mainly, she’s trying ahead to “some peace and quiet for myself.” And a part of that simply may come from being a basketball spectator for as soon as.
“I’m excited for the women who’re on the staff,” Clark advised reporters. “I used to be a child who grew up watching the Olympics, so it’ll be enjoyable to look at them.”
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