Even when you don’t observe ladies’s basketball all that carefully, you most likely (positively?) know the title Caitlin Clark. The 23-year-old Indiana Fever guard first rose to nationwide prominence throughout her faculty profession on the College of Iowa and went professional in 2024 because the primary choose in that 12 months’s WNBA draft. Since then, her star has solely risen larger.
Not solely has Clark grow to be a family title, she’s additionally helped encourage a large surge in curiosity within the WNBA (and ladies’s sports activities basically), together with different gifted newcomers just like the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese, the Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers, and the Los Angeles Sparks’ Cameron Brink. That phenomenon is so well-documented that it even has its personal title: the “Caitlin Clark impact.” Per valuation professional Ryan Brewer, PhD, affiliate professor of finance at Indiana College Columbus, Clark was single-handedly answerable for a staggering 26.5% of WNBA financial exercise for the 2024 season, as first reported by The Indianapolis Star.
So it’s maybe not an enormous shock that Clark turned the primary WNBA participant to win TIME Journal’s “Athlete of the Yr” title in December 2024, in keeping with CBS Sports activities. However regardless of her recognition, chances are high there’s most likely nonetheless lots you don’t find out about her. Earlier than the Indiana Fever suggestions off subsequent, try these enjoyable information about their star participant for a greater sense of who she is and the place she’s coming from, from her childhood aspirations to her present celebrity standing.
1. She’s been manifesting a basketball profession since third grade.
Born and raised in Des Moines, Clark grew up enjoying a number of aggressive sports activities, together with soccer and softball, however she’s had her sights set on basketball particularly since not less than the age of 9. In a March 2024 ESPN Inside Look interview, Clark shared a imaginative and prescient board she made in elementary faculty outlining her life targets, which included incomes a basketball scholarship and enjoying within the WNBA. Verify, verify. (We’ll have to remain tuned on the “enormous mansion” and “three or 4 youngsters.”)
2. She performed in boys’ sports activities leagues as a child.
Clark comes from a self-described “sports activities household,” and her dad was her first basketball coach. He acknowledged her superior abilities early on and signed her up for boys’ groups so she may proceed to be challenged on account of an absence of women’ groups within the space, in keeping with the Newbie Athletic Union. She stayed on longer than most groups stay co-ed—up till about sixth grade—and even received MVP one 12 months. “I believe it was tremendous particular in my growth, and likewise it was one thing that by no means fazed me,” she informed ESPN. “It was similar to, I’m a lady, I can maintain my very own, this isn’t something I’ve been afraid of.”
3. Her brothers helped her attain her athletic potential.
Clark, a center baby, calls her brothers each her “largest supporters” and “largest haters,” telling ESPN with amusing that they proceed to humble her. Specifically, she credit her older brother, Blake, whom she describes as at all times being “greater, stronger, sooner,” for pushing her athletically. “At any time when I needed to play with him and his associates…I by no means received, actually, something, and my mother at all times stated if you wish to play with them, you’ve received to discover a solution to maintain your personal,” she informed ESPN. (Enjoyable truth: Blake went on to play soccer at Iowa State and even befriended future San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy throughout his time there, in keeping with Fox Sports activities).
4. Clark broke information proper and left as a Hawkeye—and is constant to take action within the professionals too.
Schools acknowledged Clark’s pure expertise early on. By the point Clark was in seventh grade, she was already receiving recruitment letters, as she confirmed to Jason and Travis Kelce within the January 2 episode of their “New Heights” podcast. Throughout the identical episode, she additionally mentioned how she was initially contemplating Notre Dame, however in the end modified her thoughts in favor of Iowa.
After that call got here many, many, many damaged information. Whereas the complete listing is just too lengthy to offer right here, we’ve pulled a couple of highlights.
