(WNDU) – TIME magazine has named basketball sensation Caitlin Clark as its 2024 Athlete of the Year. The 22-year-old Indiana Fever star wowed fans during her first season with the WNBA. She set rookie season records for both points and three-pointers made. Clark was also named the league’s rookie of the year and helped propel […]
(WNDU) – TIME magazine has named basketball sensation Caitlin Clark as its 2024 Athlete of the Year.
The 22-year-old Indiana Fever star wowed fans during her first season with the WNBA. She set rookie season records for both points and three-pointers made.
Clark was also named the league’s rookie of the year and helped propel the Fever to their first playoff berth in eight years.
Clark’s star power helped drive up viewership numbers, even when she wasn’t playing. The WNBA delivered its most-watched regular season in 24 years and had its highest total attendance in 22 years.
“While other female athletes have pushed the limits of human achievement and created their own cultures — Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and the stars of the U.S. women’s national soccer team all come to mind — the Clark phenomenon is still unprecedented,” said TIME writer Sean Gregory of her immediate impact. “It’s one thing to rally around athletes during global spectacles like tennis majors or an Olympics or a World Cup. It’s quite another to turn routine regular-season games in the WNBA, a league neglected for far too long over its 27-year history, into appointment viewing.”
Prior to being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Clark had a stellar collegiate career at Iowa, where she scored more points than any player — male or female — in NCAA Division I history.
For TIME magazine’s full article on Caitlin Clark, click here.
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