Caitlin Clark makes history as WNBA ignores Olympics

WNBA

by Caroline McCarthy

Caitlin Clark's removal from the 2024 U.S. Olympic team made headlines Saturday, but it's not the first time a WNBA superstar has not been selected to the national team in recent years.

Two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker was left off the national team for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Parker said she believes she was overlooked directly because Connecticut Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma, who has a lot of influence over the 12-man roster, didn't want her on the team.

“He is [Auriemma] “When I got named coach again, I thought, 'Oh man, this is going to be interesting,'” Parker said. “He doesn't like me, I don't like him. We don't like each other.”

Parker questioned the league's politics at the time of this neglect.

“There are so many deserving athletes, but how many times do I have to tell you it's not fair,” Parker told reporters at the time. “How many times do I have to tell you it's not about politics? I think we all know that.”

But what really upset her was when her longtime Los Angeles Sparks teammate, Nneka Ogwumike, was left out of the roster for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, five years from now.

Ogwumike was the league's 2016 MVP and president of the WNBA Players Association, and Parker believed then, and arguably in 2021, that she should have earned the position.

“Perhaps, perhaps [should have been on Team USA in] It's 2016, no doubt. [2020]”She's the only MVP in the league. She won the World Games MVP. How dare you take her off the team!” Parker said of Ogwumike.

USA Today reported that Clark's popularity and potential fan reaction to an inevitable reduction in playing time on a deep roster were factors in the decision.

Coach Cheryl Reeve's team will rely heavily on veterans such as Breanna Stewart, A'ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Jewel Loyd and Chelsea Gray.

Jemele Hill, a former ESPN anchor who now writes for The Atlantic, said the decision likely represents a much-needed break for Clark, who has played nonstop since his final season at Iowa.

“Honestly, it was a good thing for Caitlin Clark not to make the Olympic team this year,” said Hill, a former ESPN anchor and current writer for The Atlantic. I wrote to X on Saturday.“In the space of a few weeks, she went from playing in college to going pro and playing a demanding schedule. A few weeks off is probably not the worst thing in the world. She'll end up on the Olympic team.”

Hill also doesn't see the decision as a “flip” at all.

“I don't think Caitlin Clark being left off the Olympic team was an oversight. I do think Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike being left off the Olympic team was an oversight,” Hill wrote. “Nneka was the league MVP, was Team USA's leading scorer the year before the Olympics and was the MVP of the FIBA ​​Qualifying Tournament. CP is a two-time gold medal winner and former MVP and champion. I think Nneka is the only WNBA MVP not to have made the Olympic roster.”