More than 500 athletes will represent Team USA in the 2024 Olympics, but some American stars will be watching the games from home.
Whether it was injuries that kept them away or they simply didn’t qualify for their respective sports, some big name athletes lost their chance to compete on the Olympic stage.
The top 10 athletes who will not be competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics are:
Caitlin Clark, Women’s Basketball
She may be taking the WNBA by storm, but Caitlin Clark’s Olympic debut will have to wait.
The NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and top WNBA draft pick was not included on the U.S. women’s basketball roster for Paris, which will be seeking an eighth consecutive gold medal. Instead, the roster will include nine Olympic gold medalists and three Olympic debutants in Alyssa Thomas, Sabrina Ionescu and Kalia Copper, all of whom won gold with the U.S. at the 2022 World Cup.
Clark took his team’s decision in stride, and Indiana Fever coach Christy Sides said the rookie told him, “Coach, they woke up a monster.”
Alex Morgan, Women’s Soccer
One of the longtime leaders of the U.S. women’s national team will not be on the pitch in Paris.
Alex Morgan was not included on coach Emma Hayes’ 18-player roster for the 2024 Olympics, marking the first time she will not play in a major tournament as part of the U.S. Women’s National Team since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 35-year-old forward said she was disappointed not to be selected but “will be rooting for this team and cheering for them with the whole nation.”
The U.S. women’s national team in Paris has an average age of 26.8, the fourth-youngest in the history of the Olympic program, and is bouncing back from a round of 16 exit at last year’s Women’s World Cup as it seeks its first Olympic gold medal since 2012.
Kawhi Leonard, Men’s Basketball
After all, Kawhi Leonard won’t be making his first Olympic appearance in Paris.
The six-time NBA All-Star was announced as an inaugural member of the U.S. men’s basketball team, but ahead of the team’s first pre-Olympic scrimmage, USA Basketball and the Los Angeles Clippers removed him from the squad, saying he should focus on building up for the 2024-25 NBA season.
Boston Celtics guard Derrick White has been named Leonard’s replacement on the U.S. national team.
Asing Mu, Athletics
Assing Mu’s hopes of winning back-to-back Olympic gold medals were dashed at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in June.
At just 19 years old, Mu won the gold medal in the 800 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, catapulting himself onto the world stage. He was expected to win the event for the second time in a row, but he fell in the 800 meters final at the U.S. Trials and missed out on competing in this summer’s Olympics.
She also won gold in the 4x400m relay as part of the U.S. team three years ago, but was not selected for the U.S. track and field relay team at the Paris Games.
Dalila MuhammadAthletics
In the end, only one member of Tokyo’s gold medal-winning women’s 4x400m relay team will be heading to Paris.
In addition to Mu’s disappointment at the U.S. Trials and Allyson Felix’s retirement three years ago, Dalilah Muhammad will not compete in the 2024 Olympics. At this year’s Trials, Muhammad finished sixth in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, an event in which she won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
With Mu, Felix and Mohammed all eliminated, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the only U.S. runner from the last 4x400m Olympic final with a chance to repeat in Paris.
Gabby Douglas, Gymnast
The three most recent Olympic all-around champions had a chance to compete for USA Gymnastics in Paris, but injury has wiped out the 2012 gold medalist’s chances of a comeback.
Gabby Douglas was aiming for a spectacular return to the Olympics after missing out on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. The three-time gold medalist and all-around champion at the London Olympics announced she would return to gymnastics in July 2023, and she did so in April.
But an ankle injury forced Douglas to withdraw from the U.S. championships in May, ending her Olympic hopes in Paris. The 28-year-old said she plans to continue training with the aim of qualifying for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Series Jones, Gymnastics
Jones was set to compete in her first Olympic Games in Paris, but an injury at the Olympic Trials dashed her hopes.
The 21-year-old gymnast had already won six world championship medals and was expected to clinch a spot on the U.S. Olympic team at the June trials, but she injured her knee while warming up on the first day of women’s competition, after which she ultimately withdrew from the competition, although she did earn the highest score on the uneven bars.
Lydia Jacoby, swimming
Lydia Jacoby won a stunning gold medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics. Three years later, she witnessed the flip side of the shocking result.
The 20-year-old Alaska native placed third in her event final at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, where only the top two swimmers in each event qualify for the Olympics, and she finished 0.27 seconds behind runner-up Emma Weber, who will compete in the same event in Paris against five-time Olympic medalist Lilly King.
“It’s been around me a few times,” Lydia Jacoby said.
Bill May, Artistic Swimming
Bill May was on his way to making Olympic history in Paris: The artistic swimming pioneer was aiming to become the sport’s first Olympic gold medalist under rule changes for 2022 that will allow each country to send up to two men to the Olympics.
But the 45-year-old did not make the U.S. national team roster, meaning only women will compete in the artistic swimming event in Paris this summer.
Jessica Springsteen, Equestrian
Bruce Springsteen’s daughter won’t have a chance to win another Olympic medal this summer.
Jessica Springsteen won a silver medal in the team equestrian event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She was in the running to return to the Summer Olympics but was ultimately left off the U.S. equestrian team roster for Paris.
