Staley admits Caitlin Clark’s recent form may have warranted US Olympic place

As the US women’s basketball team prepare to make their Paris 2024 debut on Monday a prominent member of the selection committee has admitted Caitlin Clark’s recent form may have warranted a place at the Olympics.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who also won three Olympic golds with the US as a player, said the Indiana Fever rookie had improved significantly as the WNBA season has gone on.

“As a committee member, you’re charged with putting together the best team of players, the best talent,” Staley told NBC’s Mike Tirico. “Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA, wasn’t playing bad, but wasn’t playing like she’s playing now. If we had to do it all over again, the way that she’s playing, she would be in really high consideration of making the team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people.

“Shooting the ball extremely well, I mean she is an elite passer, she’s just got a great basketball IQ and she’s a little more seasoned in the pro game in a couple of months than she was two months ago.”

Related: The right’s fury over Caitlin Clark is about everything except Caitlin Clark

Clark entered the WNBA to huge fanfare after a record-breaking college career at Iowa, and struggled initially on a mediocre Fever team. But her play has improved significantly in June and July and Indiana, the worst team in the league for the last few seasons, are now third in the Eastern Conference. Clark also leads the WNBA in assists per game, and her 19 assists in a loss to the Dallas Wings earlier this month were the most in a single game in league history.

However, Clark also leads the league in turnovers and the US Olympic team is packed with seasoned pros with multiple WNBA All-Star appearances, so it was not a surprise when she was left off the Olympic team when the roster was chosen in June. The decision led to a significant amount of racist, sexist and homophobic comments online from people purporting to defend Clark, who is white, in a league where the majority of players are Black and many are gay.

Clark later pushed back against prejudice online from those who claim to be her fans. “People should not be using my name to push those agendas. It’s disappointing. It’s not acceptable,” Clark said. “Treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect, I think, it’s just a basic human thing that everybody should do.”

Clark will almost certainly get her chance at the Olympics in the future. At the age of 22, she is part of a sparkling WNBA rookie class that includes other young American stars such as Angel Reese and Cameron Brink. She will also almost certainly play on a winning team: the US are looking for their eighth straight Olympic title in Paris, are unbeaten in 55 games at the Olympics dating back to Barcelona in 1992, and there are few signs their reign will end anytime soon.

The Americans open their Olympic campaign against Japan on Monday night. The two teams met in the gold medal match at the last Olympics, with the US winning 90-75.