There is a 13-second clip of Caitlin Clark doing the rounds. On Monday night, she was filmed arriving late to a post-match press conference, looking deflated after the Indiana Fever’s fourth loss in a row.
In the video she sighs audibly as she slumps in her chair, in front of a room full of journalists. One of her teammates Temi Fagbenle jokingly quips, “Thanks for showing up.” Clark smiles weakly, laughing a little, before the press conference resumes.
The interaction has opened Clark up to criticism online, people saying it is evidence of a bad attitude, comments about her inflated ego. Seeing it pop up on my timeline, all I could think was: give the girl a break.
For one, Clarke is known to spend copious time patiently signing autographs with fans post-match, so she may have been busy doing that. She is also said to have been getting treatment on an ankle problem, after an injury scare during the game.
Regardless, Clark is barely one week into her professional WNBA career and is already being pounced on.
Headlines have cited her team’s losses as her own, as if basketball were an individual sport and the Fever’s results solely her responsibility. Her stats have been pored over (17.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 6.5 turnovers per-game average, by the way). Every interaction with referees is dissected. Every on-court comment made to a team-mate is lip read. Off the court, the analysis has not stopped either based on the reaction to said-video.
It comes with the territory, you could say.
After all, Clark is one of the most recognisable athletes in America right now. She is easily the most famous active sportswomen in the country, and probably the world. To put her popularity into context, Clark’s final college game garnered a US television audience of 24 million. As the LA Times pointed out this week, that is more than three times the viewers that tuned in to watch Serena Williams’s last ever tennis match at the US Open in 2022.
Her logo three-pointers, record-breaking scoring antics and tenacious on-court personality have endeared her to basketball fans across the globe. People who don't know anything about basketball, but care about sporting greatness, have paid attention. 2.4 million viewers tuned in to watch her get drafted as the WNBA first pick and her jersey sold out within hours of being selected by the Fever. Thousands are flocking to arenas to watch her matches, with rival teams even booking bigger stadiums to match the demand for games against Clark’s Fever team.
That is to say nothing about how she is shaking up the way brands view women’s basketball. This past week, Clark became the first basketball player (male or female) since Michael Jordan to sign a sponsorship deal with US sporting goods company Wilson. Her Nike sponsorship deal is valued at $28million, the most lucrative in the history of the women’s game. She counts Gatorade and insurance firm State Farm as sponsors too.
Clark may still be a rookie, but she has been credited with changing the landscape for women's basketball, her star power translating into increased interest and investment across the WNBA - including chartered flights for the entire league.
Her impact has already been massive. But Clark is also only 22 years old and fresh out of college. She is not going to be the complete package basketball player in a professional setting overnight.
Unfortunately, that is what is being expected of her. So, when she has fallen short of electric in the last week, some - including analysts among the trolls - have taken the opportunity to take swipes at her. It is a tale as old as time and, in the UK, the most comparable recent example is Emma Raducanu.
There are obvious differences. Clark is being tasked with holding her sport on her shoulders, while the same was never expected of Raducanu because women’s tennis is much further along in its development. Conversely, the explosion of attention around Clark was more gradual, building her profile throughout years at college rather than the three-month breakout summer Raducanu had in 2021.
But there are similarities too:
Like Raducanu, Clark has not immediately backed up her landmark moment with success on the court.
Nearly three years on from her historic US Open win, Raducanu is still searching for the formula to compete consistently on the WTA tour and remain match fit against physically stronger players. In this nascent stage of Clark’s WNBA career, she is also going to need time to adjust to the defensive strength of her opponents and the long season ahead. But, on the current evidence, patience and a grace period will be hard to come by, considering the attention on her.
Adapting on the court is not the only issue. It is barely a month since Clark played her final match with her university side Iowa, but she is already on the road with the Fever and has not even had a chance to move into her own home in her new city of Indianapolis. Raducanu’s whirlwind first year on tour would have been similar, living out of hotels and entering top tournaments as one of the favourites, despite only just having finished her A-Levels.
Like Raducanu, Clark is facing packed media rooms after every match (and sometimes pre-game too).
It is huge pressure, even for Clark who already had extensive experience of this at college level.
As a member of the media, I am acutely aware of the the part I play in it all. If I'm honest, it can sometimes sit uncomfortably with me (and I questioned whether to write this post at all).
We have a level of responsibility to present stories accurately, with due context. There is also demand from readers and viewers that news sites and television channels are there to feed. The media as a collective are not the bad guys - these athletes and sports require coverage to thrive - but balance can sometimes be lost in the fervour.
To add to that, not all newsrooms are sensitive to the notion that a young woman in the spotlight will have different pressures and experiences to men in those spaces either.
For example, Clark had to deal with a male reporter who made inappropriate comments and held his hands up in a love heart to her during a press conference. It was her first day with the Fever.
More seriously, within months of Raducanu being pictured by paparazzi outside her Bromley home after her triumphant return from New York, a stalker turned up at her door multiple times and the family were forced to seek a restraining order.
Both Clark and Raducanu, 21, sit in packed press conference rooms with a sea of mostly men staring back at them. I know I have occasionally found it a daunting place to merely be sat among press packs like that - especially at the start of my career. So I can’t quite begin to imagine what it is like to sit in Clark or Raducanu’s seat at the front of the room.
Like with Raducanu, some are raising their eyebrows about Clark's many endorsement deals.
This last point has always been interesting to me.
People remain perversely obsessed with Raducanu’s roster of brand partnerships (they include Dior, HSBC, Evian and British Airways). I can sort of see the danger in snapping up so many deals as quickly a Raducanu did, but I also see the logic. Women capitalising on their popularity should be unilaterally celebrated in my opinion, considering they have been undervalued in sport for decades. Instead, it makes people uncomfortable and it is cited as the cause of their subpar performances.
Women athletes are accused of falling for frivolous distractions in a way that I rarely see for (white) sportsmen (who, by the way, benefit from far more lucrative deals and are paid more by tournaments and teams). If Clark falls short of weighty expectations over the next season, people will accuse her of falling short of the hype built by her sponsorship deals too.
Raducanu gets this constantly. On Tuesday, she posted a screenshot of her planner, including two hour-long gym sessions and a further pair of timeblocks dedicated to tennis. Plus a physio session that evening. And a further screenshot showing her 5km split times. It was a public record, an unsubtle message being sent out to the social media ether: I’m working hard.
It came days after confirming she would opt out of French Open qualifying, not due to injury, but in order to get more time on the practice court ahead of the grass and Wimbledon.
That decision is a strange one and it is fair to question it - but there is plenty to focus on that does not need to include her endorsement deals. Like opting against employing a full-time coach, after splitting with numerous seasoned professionals or rarely dipping her toe into lower level events, despite her current ranking (212) and the wild card offers appearing to dry up this clay season.
The hope is Raducanu and Clark will go on to have even more success in their already storied careers and that they will find ways to cope with the pressure for the long-term. Having strong teams and loyal people in their circle will always be key.
Clark benefits from playing a team sport, with coaches she doesn’t have to appoint herself and more experienced teammates who can guide and support her. I remember being in Rome in 2022, when Raducanu retired from her match injured and told reporters, “Sometimes I feel like I need a voice to, you know, just hold my hand” when it came to navigating decision-making. It was a moment of real vulnerability which highlighted the heavy load of individual sport, especially for a young player.
In an interview with the Times published last weekend, Raducanu made another revealing admission. Speaking about her ambitions to one day go into the finance sector, she said: “A hundred per cent for me — life starts after tennis. I am actually looking forward to the next chapter, which is funny to say at this age, but there are so many things I want to do in this life and I just don’t have enough time.”
Raducanu is less than three years into her career. That she is already excited by the prospect of starting afresh is a sign, to me, that the limelight and harsh reality of professional sport has taken a huge toll.
She is not a cautionary tale as yet, with years ahead of her. But if there’s a lesson to learn from the experiences of these remarkable sportswomen and their stories, it might just be to lay off them for a bit.
Recommendations
This piece from Tom Cary in the Telegraph stopped me in my tracks, on how a flawed doping case ended British cyclist Lizzy Banks’s career and led her to a mental health crisis. It raises all sorts of questions about anti-doping processes, in an Olympic and Paralympic year where this will no doubt be a hot topic. Well worth a read.
In terms of sport to watch, this weekend we’re spoilt for choice. I’m heading to the Uefa Women’s Champions League final in Bilbao, where two titans of European football will be clashing. Barcelona v Lyon is at 5pm CET on Saturday.
In tennis, the French Open main draw also begins this Sunday.
That’s all for this week - as ever, let me know what you think in the comments!
Molly x
In the U.S., the Big Bang events in women’s sports, particularly basketball and soccer, are the only bright spots in a mostly dark sports universe that now includes pervasive gambling, Saudi money, the formation of super-leagues in college sports, along with the college transfer portal and NIL money.
I watched the Fever’s game last night. Clark appears to be adapting pretty well, I’d say. Unfortunately, the Fever are just not a very good team at this point. Of course, that’s how they got into the lottery for first draft pick (arguably the most important thing they’ve ever won). But still, even in a lopsided loss the game was quite fun to watch. Compared to the NBA, in the WNBA traveling gets called, it’s not a series of one-on-one setups, and defense tends to be played more consistently throughout the game, not just in the fourth quarter.
Thank you for this timely piece!
Two characteristics of sporting achievements:
1. There are many levels (from winning to just being able to qualify to the Oympics or a tournament or a group stage).
2. Each achievement has its own worth and is for life. During a career, you may try to repeat or suplant it, but what you already achieved can't be taken away.
Unfortunately and ilogically, for Clark and Raducanu, achievements at an early age come with the added weight of being dependent on future performances in order to receive proper recognition.
And while these girls (young adults and relatively inexperienced pros) are yet to backup their conquests, all their moves get microanalyzed.
I guess there is top much pettiness and negativity in the world nowadays.
Let the girls grow and enjoy their careers!