Caitlin Clark won’t be headed to the Paris Olympics, a source told ESPN on Saturday, confirming multiple reports.
Clark has international experience with USA Basketball at a younger level, but she wasn’t able to make the national training camp in Cleveland after she was invited because she was leading Iowa to the Final Four. Clark finished her career as the NCAA’s Division I career scoring leader.
Clark, now a rookie with the Indiana Fever, has drawn millions of new fans to women’s basketball in her college career and now in her young WNBA career.
Jennifer Rizzotti, chair of the U.S. Women’s National Team Committee, declined comment.
Although Clark won’t be headed to Paris, the United States is expected to take five-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi for a sixth Olympics. Taurasi, who will turn 42 on Tuesday, will be joined by Phoenix Mercury teammate Brittney Griner.
This will be Griner’s first time playing internationally since she was detained in a Russian prison for 10 months in 2022. She said she’ll play abroad only with USA Basketball.
Joining the pair will be Olympic veterans Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Jewell Loyd and Chelsea Gray. Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young, who helped the U.S. win the inaugural 3×3 gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, will also be on the team.
First-time Olympians are Alyssa Thomas, Sabrina Ionescu and Kahleah Copper. All three played on the American team that won the World Cup in Australia in 2022.
The U.S. women have won every gold medal in women’s basketball since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Taurasi will break the record for most Olympics played in the sport of basketball. Five players, including former Taurasi teammate Sue Bird, have competed in five.
The U.S. team will get together to train for a few days in Phoenix in July. Then it’s off to London for an exhibition game against Germany before heading to France. The Americans will play Japan, Belgium and Germany in pool play at the Olympics.
The U.S. team will be coached by longtime Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who has extensive USA Basketball experience. Reeve, like former Olympic coaches, was allowed to give feedback on team makeup but was not part of the group that picked players. That was done by the selection committee chaired by Connecticut Sun team president Rizzotti, a former UConn and WNBA player who also coached for many years.
Joining Rizzotti on the selection committee are South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, a previous U.S. Olympic coach who also played in three Olympics; Dan Padover, the Atlanta Dream‘s general manager; Bethany Donaphin, the WNBA’s head of league operations; and Seimone Augustus and DeLisha Milton-Jones, retired WNBA champions and Olympic gold medalists who are now college coaches.
Rosters across all sports for the Paris Games were due to the U.S. Olympic Committee by June 7 unless a sport’s trials are held after that date or a sport’s governing body requested an extension, which USA Basketball did, a source told ESPN. Technically, that gave the selection committee a little more time to monitor the start of the WNBA season if needed.
USA Basketball generally has not publicly announced Olympic alternates. The projected roster and list of potential alternates must be submitted to FIBA, basketball’s world governing body, by approximately June 24.
The decision to leave Clark off the roster was first reported by The Athletic.
Information from ESPN’s Michael Voepel and The Associated Press was used in this report.
