Caitlin Clark named Time's 2024 Athlete of the Year

Caitlin Clark's time is now.

The 22-year-old was named Time's Athlete of the Year for 2024, a year in which she shattered college basketball and WNBA records alike.

After leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to the national championship game and setting the all-time college basketball scoring record, Clark made the leap to the WNBA with the Indiana Fever. From there, she set new WNBA rookie records for points and 3-pointers and a new league record for assists in a season on her way to earning WNBA Rookie of the Year honors.

Clark's record-setting year extended far beyond the box score. WNBA viewership and ticket sales skyrocketed in Clark's rookie year, especially when it came to the Fever.

The team saw a 182% jump in overall attendance from 2023, as teams across the league moved their home games against Indiana to NBA arenas. The Fever's Sept. 19 game against the Mystics in Washington, D.C., set an all-time WNBA attendance record of 20,711.

Clark and fellow rookie Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky drew in an average of 2.25 million viewers for their June 16 showdown in Indiana, making it the most-watched WNBA game since 2001.

“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,” Clark told Time.

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While Clark was named a WNBA All-Star and earned All-WNBA honors, one competition she notably did not participate in was the 2024 Paris Olympics. She did not make the 12-player roster for Team USA, which went on to win its eighth straight Olympic gold, and said being left off the roster “will definitely motivate me my entire career.”

Clark found herself at the center of other controversies throughout the year, almost all of which she did nothing to incite. Between the role her race played in her marketability, hard fouls committed by players against her and the Olympic exclusion, Clark's "defenders" pushed racist, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ narratives, with some directly threatening other WNBA players. Clark addressed the toxicity with Time, calling it “upsetting and gross.”

“Just stop,” Clark said of those harassing others in her name. “Because that’s not who I am.”

Looking ahead, Clark is only getting started with her impact on basketball and beyond.

“Personally, I'm just scratching the surface of what I can do and hopefully how I can change the world and impact people,” she said.