WNBA rookie sensation Caitlin Clark will not compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics, according to multiple reports.
The Indiana Fever point guard is set to be left off Team USA's roster for the Olympic Games in Paris, a source familiar with the decision told NBC News June 8.
In response to the reports, Team USA spokesperson told the outlet, "We have not made any official announcement yet."
Clark has emerged as a breakout WNBA star since she was chosen first overall in the 2024 draft in April. Previously, the 22-year-old was the star of the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team, where she set the NCAA all-time scoring record. The multiple reports about her being left off Team USA's roster for the Olympics drew criticism among her fans on social media.
As to who is expected to be part of the team, the source named 12 WNBA veterans.
Three of them—the Phoenix Mercury's Kahleah Copper, 29, Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas, 32, and the New York Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu, 26, have never competed in the Olympics before.
The other nine were part of Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021: the Las Vegas Aces' Kelsey Plum, 29, Jackie Young, 26, Chelsea Gray, 31, and A'ja Wilson, 27, plus Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, 29, Minnesota Lynx power forward Napheesa Collier, 27, Seattle Storm's Jewell Loyd, 30, and two more Mercury players—five-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi, 41, and Brittney Griner, 33.
Griner's expected participation at the Paris Olympic Games will mark her third time at the Olympics. It will also be the first time the WNBA All-Star, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, will play professional basketball overseas since she was freed from a Russian penal colony in December 2022 in a high-profile prisoner exchange. Griner, who had played on a Russian team during the WNBA off-season, had spent 10 months in detention in the country for carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.
At an April 2023 press conference, Griner had said, "I'm never going overseas to play again unless I'm representing my country at the Olympics. If I make that team, that'd be the only time I would I would leave U.S soil and that's just to represent the USA."
Several past U.S. Olympic teams have included WNBA rookies. Stewart competed at the Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016, months after she was chosen as the first overall pick in the WNBA draft and after she joined Seattle's team.
Team USA is seeking its eighth consecutive gold medal for the women's basketball team at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Their first game, against Japan, is set to take part July 29.
(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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U.S. Women's Basketball Team