Caitlin Clark sets sights on WNBA Draft and Paris 2024 Olympics after record-breaking collegiate career comes to a close

ByBecky Hart

Updated 09/04/2024 at 14:07 GMT

Caitlin Clark’s collegiate career might have ended in defeat, but the American superstar can only see positives from her meteoric rise with women’s basketball firmly in the spotlight. As she looks towards the next steps in her pro career, the American was keen to point out the impact this heightened interest will have on women’s sports across the board.

Caitlin Clark has hit all sorts of headlines of late, the American basketball star leading Iowa Hawkeyes’ charge this season, which ended in a 87-75 defeat to South Carolina in Sunday’s collegiate final. That match saw an incredible 18.7 million Americans tuning in – the most for a women’s basketball game ever.

Clark might have been on the losing side, but her meteoric rise this season has seen her become a household name as she scored over 3,900 points across the season – more than any male or female college athlete in history.

She scored 30 points in the final including 18 in the first quarter – the most in a period in a national championship game. The records just kept coming for Clark as she also beat Pete Maravich's 54-year-old college basketball scoring record for most points in Division I history.

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Her on-court performances might have dominated headlines, but how the point guard has conducted herself off-court has been equally worthy of praise, with Clark keen to emphasise what her heightened profile means to her.

“Everyone sees the viewership numbers,” she said. “When you're given the opportunity, women's sport thrives and that's been the coolest part for me on this journey.

"We started the season playing in front of 55,000 people, now we're ending it in front of 15 million people on TV. It just continues to get better and better and that's never going to stop.

"When you continue to give them the platform, things like this are just going to continue to happen."

• TNT Sports and WNBA announce multi-year agreement to broadcast live games in the UK and Ireland

Caitlin Clark's collegiate career ended in defeat to South Carolina

Image credit: Getty Images

Clark is expected to be the number one pick in the WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever, and could well link up with the US team for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The US have won gold in the women’s basketball every year since Atlanta in 1996, and will be the heavy favourites going into the event in Paris later this summer. If Clark does link up with the team, it will increase the profile of the sport in Paris no end – making it one of the hottest tickets in town.

"No matter what sport it is, believe in them the same, invest in them the same, and things are going to thrive," said Clark, as she pressed home what her impact has had on women’s sports in general.

"You see it with other sports. Continue to invest time, money and resources for those people and give them the opportunities. I think that's what's going to drive women's sports in future.

"People will remember the moments that they shared at one of our games or watching on TV, and how excited their daughter or son got about watching women's basketball.

"That's pretty cool, those are things that mean the most to me."

- - -

TNT Sports and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) today announced a multi-year collaboration to air WNBA games in the UK and Ireland, re-affirming TNT Sports’ commitment to women’s sport and strengthening its basketball offering.

Fans will be able to watch at least 16 regular-season WNBA games each season live and on-demand via TNT Sports and discovery+ as the 12 teams battle it out for the WNBA Championship.

TNT Sports’ WNBA coverage tips off on Wednesday, May 15 (BST) with last year’s runners-up the New York Liberty, led by 2023 MVP Breanna Stewart, 2021 league MVP Jonquel Jones and 2023 All-WNBA Second Team selection Sabrina Ionescu, travelling to the nation’s capital to take on the Washington Mystics, featuring two-time WNBA All-Star Ariel Atkins and 2023 WNBA All-Defensive First Team selection Brittney Sykes.

TNT Sports will broadcast weekend WNBA games in primetime during the regular season. In addition to regular-season games, TNT Sports will broadcast select games from the WNBA Playoffs, WNBA Finals and the annual WNBA All-Star Game.

To complement live game coverage, throughout the season TNT Sports’ digital and social platforms will also provide fans with weekly WNBA highlights and clips to ensure they don’t miss any of the key moments.

The Olympic Games will return with Paris 2024, live on Eurosport and discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com

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TNT Sports and WNBA announce multi-year agreement to broadcast live games in the UK and Ireland

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