TIME MAGAZINE’S 2024 ATHLETE OF THE YEAR, THE WNBA’S ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, AND THE NCAA’S ALL-TIME LEADING SCORER: THIS RECORD-SMASHING HOOPS SENSATION IS CHANGING THE FACE OF WOMEN’S BASKETBALL – AND SHE HASN’T EVEN STARTED HER SECOND PROFESSIONAL SEASON

BY WILL HARRIS

As difficult as it may be for some sports fans in 2025 to believe, not too long ago the Women’s National Basketball Association was seen as little more than a novelty, not unlike the way female baseball leagues were viewed during World War II. (If you’ve watched A League of Their Own, then you know what we’re talking about…and if you haven’t, why, we ask you? It’s a classic!) Fortunately, the WBNA has come a long way in the eyes of the public, and in recent years there’s one very specific player who’s arguably helped more than any other: Caitlin Clark.

In fact, let’s not even use the word “arguably.” After all, she’s had such an impact on the viewership of women’s basketball that there’s a Wikipedia page devoted to the “Caitlin Clark Effect.” Born on January 22, 2002, the 23-year-old started playing basketball at age five (and in a boys’ rec league, no less, as there wasn’t a girls’ league for her age group). By age 13, she had joined All Iowa Attack, an Amateur Athletic Union basketball program that kept her playing all the way through her high school graduation, but she also played for Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, Iowa.

But, of course, it was her college career that turned her into a sports and pop culture superstar, thanks in particular to the 2023 NCAA Tournament, where she set records left and right for the Iowa Hawkeyes. By the time she graduated, the Wall Street Journal had declared her the “GOAT of TV Ratings,” likening her to such sports icons as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Serena Williams. In 2024, not only was she drafted to the Indiana Fever, but she was named TIME Magazine’s Athlete of the Year.

When asked by TIME’s Sean Gregory to define her year in a word, she chose “historic,” after which she explained, “I’ve been able to captivate so many people that have never watched women’s sports, let alone women’s basketball, and turn them into fans.”

Gregory described Clark as “polite and down-to-earth but also has not an ounce of false humility,” and you can hear it in that response. But later in the TIME interview, she talks about how far she still has to go in both her basketball career and, indeed, her life in general, and she underlines her awareness of how she’s inspiring people women in particular.

“Personally, I’m just scratching the surface of what I can do and hopefully how I can change the world and impact people,” said Clark. “There’s also been so many people that are not involved in women’s sports, that are in the workforce, or whatever they do, and they’re like, ‘Thank you for what you do for women.’ I’ve heard that a million times.”

“A million times,” and she’s only 23. Just imagine how many times Caitlin Clark will hear those words by the time all’s said and done, and the mind boggles.

Caitlin Clark @caitlinclark22