Over the weekend, Team USA officially announced that women’s basketball superstar Caitlin Clark had been left off of its roster for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games. The decision led to a lot of criticism and outrage from fans and media, but it sounds like Team USA is standing by its decision.
While Caitlin Clark is undeniably one of the most popular and recognizable players on the planet and has done a lot to grow women’s basketball over the past couple of years, USA women’s basketball committee chair Jen Rizzotti did not hold back as she made it clear that the team’s goal was to build the best roster possible, and they think they accomplished that.
“USA Basketball does a lot for youth basketball in the United States. It has dozens of programs around the country that support the mission statement, but also part of its mission is to win Olympic Gold medals,” Rizzotti said according to The Athletic. “And so the board selects and approves a committee to make those decisions, and they give us criteria to make those decisions. We did our job based on that criteria.”
It’s worth noting that Team USA has been one of the most dominant teams in women’s basketball history even without Clark.
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