Caitlin Clark’s exclusion from the USA roster for the Olympics in Paris was a “missed opportunity,” according to one of the organizers of the next Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Casey Wasserman, the president of the 2028 Olympic Organizing Committee, said Saturday night at the U.S. swimming trials in Indianapolis that Clark is “a missed opportunity because she clearly is generational talent at a time when the world was ready for it,” according to USA Today.
“There have been incredible talents in the world, shame on all of us, the world wasn’t in a place to embrace that,” said Wasserman, who also heads a sports marketing and management company representing several WNBA players. “Take Diana [Taurasi] or Breanna Stewart, or some of our clients who are going to be on the team. They are dominant at a level that’s never been seen before but the world wasn’t ready to fill a building like Caitlin Clark did for whatever, the Final Four.
“Now you have both those things and so that’s a powerful opportunity and I just think it would have been an opportunity to elevate the women’s team.”
Clark was the No.1 pick in the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever after setting the all-time NCAA scoring record at Iowa, and the rookie guard currently ranks second in All-Star voting.
But she missed USA Basketball’s training camp due to the NCAA Final Four, and wasn’t among the 12 players named earlier this month to the American squad that will go for an eighth consecutive gold medal in Paris.
“I understand both sides of the issue,” Wasserman added. “Purely as an opportunity to showcase a generational talent to the world, clearly. But I totally get both sides of it. If it were simple, we wouldn’t be debating it.
“Whether she should have been on or not, she didn’t really have the chance to be on the court at the time in those moments to be judged in the same way. And that’s a hard thing for an athlete.”
Still, Wasserman knows that the 22-year-old Clark obviously will have plenty of opportunities to represent her country, especially four year from now.
“I certainly hope she’ll be at the 2028 Olympics,” Wasserman said. “She’s a great star and the future of American basketball is bright.”
