Sports World Reacts To Caitlin Clark Not Being On U.S. Olympic Team: ‘Monumentally Dumb’

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Sports critics offered mixed reactions to reports that Caitlin Clark will not be heading to Paris to join the U.S. women’s basketball team at the Olympics this summer.

The Indiana Fever rookie and all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball didn’t make the 12-player roster in a year where Team USA veterans like Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi, New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson made the cut, according tomultipleoutlets.

Others making the women’s squad include Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, Mercury’s Kahleah Copper, Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu, Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd and Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas, as well as Aces’ Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young.

Clark, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft who joined the league ahead of a notable growth in popularity, would have been the fifth league rookie to make the Olympic team, a move that Sylvia Fowles, Candace Parker, Stewart and Taurasi all made in prior years.

Sources told USA Today’s Christine Brennan that concern over how Clark’s massive fanbase would respond to “what would likely be limited playing time” on the veteran-heavy Team USA roster played a role in the decision.

Team USA, which has won the gold medal at every summer Olympics since 1996, is expected to repeat in Paris.

Sports commentator Mike Lupica slammed the decision to leave Clark off the roster in a post on X, formerly called Twitter, calling it “monumentally dumb.”

“It must be comforting to Caitlin Clark today that people who’ve been chirping at her since she got to the WNBA now think her being left off the Olympic team is really a good thing for her,” he wrote.

“The blowback on this young woman continues to be amazing.”

In a post responding to a Fever-Washington Mystics game that recently drew over 20,000 fans, ESPN’s Linda Cohn called the Team USA decision a “lost opportunity.”

“All she does is grow the game, pack arenas, and set rookie records. What a short sighted decision,” Cohn wrote on X.

However, former ESPN reporter Jemele Hill said that Clark not being on the Team USA roster “is actually a good thing” for the rising athlete.

“In the span of weeks, she went from playing college ball, to becoming a professional, to having a grind of schedule. A multi-week break probably isn’t the worst thing in the world. She will eventually make an Olympic team,” Hill wrote on X.

She added that people need to “stop panicking” and noted that the league will have Clark “for a long time.”

“Her popularity isn’t going anywhere. The league isn’t going to fall off a cliff if she’s not on the team, and every single decision can’t be about placating the optics around one player,” Hill said.

You can check out more takes on Clark not making the Olympic team below.