‘A great problem’: Could Caitlin Clark make the U.S. Olympic team?

Caitlin Clark already heard her name called once this week, but the most heralded No. 1 draft pick in WNBA history is still in contention to make an even more exclusive roster this summer.

Before even playing a WNBA game, Clark has already become a key figure in the U.S. Olympic roster discussion as the United States goes for its eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal this summer in

Paris. The Iowa star was invited to participate in the senior national team’s training camp in April, but could not attend as the Hawkeyes advanced to the Final Four on the same weekend.

A six-person committee, which is led by U.S. 3x3 head coach Jennifer

Rizzotti and South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley and includes former star player Seimone Augustus, will make the final decision. Cheryl Reeve, who is taking over national team head coach duties from Staley, will not play a significant role in the selection process. The Minnesota Lynx coach and president of basketball operations is happy to sit this one out.

“Thank goodness,” Reeve said with a hearty chuckle during the U.S. Olympic media summit Wednesday.

While the men’s team announced its Olympic roster Wednesday, the women’s team likely won’t reveal its final group until the summer. In 2021, USA Basketball didn’t name its women’s roster until about one month before the Tokyo Games opened. The WNBA season, which begins May 14, will break from July 21 to Aug. 14 for the Olympic Games. The Paris Games open on July 26.

“I just know that it’s a struggle,” Reeve said of cutting the roster down.

“Every time they’re making a decision — this time it’s Caitlin, last time it was Nneka [Ogwumike], before that it was Candace Parker. … No matter what you do, you’ve left someone off that someone really thinks you should have brought. And that’s a great problem for the U.S., right?”

Breanna Stewart was the last WNBA rookie to make the U.S. Olympic team, in 2016. The New York Liberty star and reigning WNBA most valuable player knows the difficult path ahead if Clark makes the cut.

Stewart remembers how relentless the transition from college to the pros was. She felt like she was sprinting on a hamster wheel going from winning her fourth national championship with Connecticut on April 5, being drafted first overall by the Seattle Storm on April 14, being named to the Olympic team on April 27 and playing in her first WNBA game on May 15.

“I was just trying to be a sponge,” Stewart said. “I knew I was the youngest one on this Olympic team by far, so my advice would be to be a sponge and really just to take it all in. It’s a lot. A lot’s going to be thrown at Caitlin, just in her rookie year anyways.”

Stewart leaned on former WNBA and Olympic teammate Sue Bird for support through her professional transition. The five-time Olympic gold medalist retired in 2022.

Bird’s departure marks a new era at point guard for the United States. While

Las Vegas Aces star Chelsea Gray will likely return for her second Olympics, Reeve acknowledged the relative lack of depth at that position compared to a loaded frontcourt that includes Stewart, twotime WNBA champion

A’ja Wilson and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner.