Many around the sports world have been quite upset with the decision from Team USA to leave Caitlin Clark off the team for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. But in a recent interview, a Team USA executive defended the decision.
Clark’s popularity that has helped grow the sport would have undoubtedly made the Team USA Women’s Basketball team must see throughout their Olympic run.
It’s understandable as to why people are upset about the decision. But it really comes down to whether you believe is one of the top 12 women’s basketball players in the United States.
Team USA selection committee chair Jen Rizzotti doesn’t seem to believe that Clark is, defending the committee’s decision to leave Clark off the team.
“It would be irresponsible for us to talk about her in a way other than how she would impact the play of the team,” Rizzotti said, via TMZ. “Because it wasn’t the purview of our committee to decide how many people would watch or how many people would root for the U.S. It was our purview to create the best team we could for [Coach] Cheryl [Reeve].
“Here’s the basketball criteria that we were given as a committee and how do we evaluate our players based on that?” Rizzotti added about the decision-making process. “And when you base your decision on criteria, there were other players that were harder to cut because they checked a lot more boxes.”
Based on this statement, Rizzotti and the rest of the committee seemed to believe that Clark simply didn’t hit as many “criteria” as other players who did make the team.
It may not be a popular decision from Rizzotti and the rest of the committee. But she is standing by her decision, which is at least noble of her to do.
[TMZ]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.