Sports World Reacts To Caitlin Clark Not Being On US Olympic Team: 'Monumentally Dumb'

Sports critics offered mixed reactions to reports that Caitlin Clark will not be heading to Paris to join the U.S. women’s basketball team at the Olympics this summer.

The Indiana Fever rookie — the all-time NCAA Division I basketball scoring leader — didn’t make the 12-player roster in a year where Team USA veterans such as Phoenix Mercury stars Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi, New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson made the cut, according to multiple outlets.

Others making the women’s squad include Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, Mercury’s Kahleah Copper, Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu, Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd, Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas as well as Aces’ Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young.

Clark ― the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft who joined the league ahead of a notable growth in popularity ― would have been the fifth league rookie to make the Olympic team, a move that Sylvia Fowles, Candace Parker, Stewart and Taurasi all made in prior years.

Sources told USA Today’s Christine Brennan that concern over how Clark’s massive fanbase would respond to “what would likely be limited playing time” on the veteran-heavy Team USA roster played a role in the decision.

Team USA, which has won the gold medal at every summer Olympics since 1996, are expected to repeat in Paris.

Sports commentator Mike Lupica slammed the decision to leave Clark off the roster on social media, calling it “monumentally dumb.”

“It must be comforting to Caitlin Clark today that people who’ve been chirping at her since she got to the WNBA now think her being left off the Olympic team is really a good thing for her,” he wrote.

“The blowback on this young woman continues to be amazing.”

ESPN’s Linda Cohn, in