The popularity of women's basketball, and women's sports in general, skyrocketed in 2024, and it is without a doubt that Caitlin Clark can be thanked for that.
Not only was Clark the most popular female athlete over the last 12 months, Time named her their Athlete of the Year, a title held by worldwide stars like Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Simone Biles, Serena Williams and Tiger Woods in recent years.
Clark began the year at the back end of her record-breaking college ball career. As a senior at Iowa, she was several months removed from losing the national championship to Angel Reese and the LSU Tigers, where Reese's "You Can't See Me" taunt was the unofficial start of a rivalry both on and off the court (although Clark, herself, will tell you there's no such thing between them).
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In any case, the gesture prompted plenty of discussion, which turned into further culture wars this summer with Clark as a WNBA player. That, though, did not come before she set the NCAA record (both men and women) for most points scored in a college career and another national championship appearance.
In April, she was the No. 1 overall pick and practically just as she stepped on a WNBA court, the conversation began about whether her popularity was due to her race. In fact, it was a claim that WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson had made, saying Clark being White was a "huge thing" when it came to Clark's popularity.
Throughout the season, though, Clark was able to block out the noise about what was said about her off the court, even when it looked like she was attacked on the court by her opponents. Hard fouls came amid allegations of racism from both Indiana Fever and Iowa fans, a claim made by the aforementioned Reese.
But Clark had repeated time and time again that she was focused on basketball, and that sure looked to be the case. In her rookie season, she not only broke rookie records, even WNBA records now bare Clark's name.
Clark's appearances in games brought historic viewership to both the college and pro levels. The final three games of her college career were the most-watched women's college basketball games ever. She also had several of her regular-season games draw more viewers than WNBA playoff games, and her WNBA matchups with Reese were some of the most-viewed WNBA games ever.
WNBA teams even had to move to larger arenas simply because of the ticket demand Clark drew; the Fever sold 90 times more tickets this past year than in 2023.
Clark was named the Rookie of the Year for her historic campaign during which she set the record for the most assists in one season in league history. She carried the Fever to a playoff appearance after a slow start, and she quickly became a double-double machine. She even set a single-game record with 19 assists. She also became the first rookie to record a triple-double, registering two of them.
She received the most votes for the All-Star Game and was just the fifth rookie in league history to make the All-WNBA first-team.
It should go without saying that Clark is well on her way to an illustrious career, and even more impressive is what she did this year with all the outside noise.
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