Shams Charania, Joe Vardon, Mark Puleo, Ben Pickman, Chantelle Jennings
Indiana Fever rookie star Caitlin Clark is expected to be left off the U.S. women’s basketball team’s 12-player roster for the upcoming Summer Olympics, according to a source briefed on the decision.
The veteran roster includes A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Alyssa Thomas, Napheesa Collier, Jewel Loyd, Kelsey Plumb, Jackie Young, Sabrina Ionescu, Chelsea Gray and Kalia Copper, according to a source close to the team. The U.S. women have won gold at every Olympic Games since 1996, and this all-star roster is likely to be a favorite to win in Paris.
Seven of the 12 players have Olympic 5-on-5 experience and two more have 3-on-3 experience, meaning only three — Thomas, Copper and Ionescu — will be making their Olympic debut. The selected players recently began receiving their Team USA Olympic jerseys.
Taurasi, who will be 42 when the tournament begins, will be competing in her sixth Olympic Games and will break the international record she shared with five other athletes, both male and female. Griner, her Phoenix Mercury teammate, has competed in two previous Olympic Games.
Stewart, a two-time WNBA MVP and two-time Finals MVP, is competing in her third Olympic Games and was named Most Valuable Player of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 after averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Wilson, a two-time WNBA MVP, averaged 16.5 points per game in her Olympic debut in Tokyo and is off to a strong start in the WNBA this season, averaging 28 points and 12.3 rebounds per game.
Sources said Clark, Breonna Jones and Aaliyah Boston are likely to fill in if one of the 12 players is unable to play. Clark’s Fever teammate Boston, last year’s WNBA Rookie of the Year, is among the notable young players left off the roster.
After a historic NCAA career at the University of Iowa where she was Division I’s all-time leading scorer and a two-time National Player of the Year, Clark tied her WNBA career high with 30 points on seven 3-pointers against the Washington Mystics on Friday.
In March, Clark was one of 14 players invited to the U.S. National Team’s final training camp before the Summer Olympics. She was unable to attend because she was playing with the University of Iowa in the Final Four, but several longtime U.S. National Team contributors attended before her. The U.S. Women’s Team has held regular training camps for potential national team candidates over the years. Attendance is not mandatory, but it helps the selection committee choose the 12 players who will represent the men’s and women’s dominant basketball teams.
They were selected by a women’s basketball committee that included University of South Carolina coach and former U.S. national team coach Dawn Staley, three-time Olympian and Louisiana State University assistant coach Seimone Augustus, two-time Olympian and Old Dominion University coach DeLisha Milton-Jones, Connecticut Suns president Jennifer Rizzotti and WNBA president of league operations Bethany Donafin.
The 2024 Olympic roster, which will feature four members of the Las Vegas Aces, is reminiscent of the 2016 Olympic roster. In 2016, one-third of the team was made up of Minnesota Lynx players Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Augustus and Sylvia Fowles, and the franchise made history by winning four WNBA titles in seven seasons. Athletic Speaking on The Women’s Basketball Show, Augustus noted how using multiple players from a single team would be advantageous for the U.S. team, which doesn’t have much time to train together before the Olympics to make the Final 12. The 2024 roster won’t actually take the court until a week before the All-Star game in July.
Is Clark’s absence a surprise?
It’s not surprising that she wasn’t selected. In fact, the U.S. women’s basketball team, which has won seven consecutive Olympic gold medals, is the best basketball team in the world. Many of the members have played together in the WNBA and the Olympics. Clark did not attend a senior national team camp this season because of her college season, so there may be questions about how she will fit on the court. There is continuity in the lineup. Consider that there are four Aces and three Mercurys on the roster.
It’s also hard to imagine that the slow start to the WNBA season didn’t factor into the decision. While Clark has had some good numbers (on Friday night, for example, she became the first player in WNBA history with 200 points and 75 assists in her first 12 games), she also leads the WNBA in turnovers with 67, 29 more than any other player. Her 3-point shooting percentage of 32.7% is also lower than many would have expected. Still, by leaving Clark out, the Olympic Committee appears to be accepting lower television ratings than if she had been on the team. Ben Pickman
The roster is biased towards players with professional experience.
But Clarke’s and her Boston teammate’s omissions are surprising because Olympic teams are often made up of young players who are seen as the team’s future, but who are not expected to contribute much in the short term. That’s not the case this year, with Ionescu, the youngest player on the team, at 26 years old.
Of course, this year’s roster is loaded with talent — the 2028 roster will almost certainly be the favorites to win the 2028 Olympics, too — so the absence of Clarke and former Boston and Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard on this year’s roster doesn’t mean the U.S. is falling behind in the competition. But the selection committee’s philosophy on the roster is worth noting. Pickman
Will Clark still be able to participate?
One question that remains to be answered is whether Gray will be able to play in the Olympics. Gray has not yet played in the WNBA this season after suffering a lower leg injury in Game 3 of the 2023 WNBA Finals. However, she has attended the U.S. Olympic training camp in Cleveland and, if healthy, is likely to be the starting point guard. In theory, Clark could fill in for Gray or play as a sub if there are other injuries before the Olympics. But once the games start, Clark, Jones and Boston will not be available, even if a player is injured during the competition. Pickman
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An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated whether the United States Basketball Association would name reserve players for the women’s Olympic team. Three players are considered likely to be substitutes if one of the team’s 12 players is unable to play, but official reserves are not expected to be announced in advance.
(Photo: Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images)
