The United States women’s basketball team heading to the 2024 Olympics was announced Friday. And Caitlin Clark, the main star of the WNBA this season, was not on this list. But there was room for Brittney Greiner. The same one who spent 10 months in a Russian prison for drug possession.

Greiner, who missed almost a year, goes to Paris for the third Olympic gold of her career. And rising women’s basketball star Clarke will have to watch the Olympics on TV. The Americans are shocked, because Caitlin is considered a phenomenon in women’s basketball.

Guest from the future

Caitlin Clark is a unique phenomenon in world basketball. As a player for the Iowa Hawkeyes student team, she demonstrated phenomenal performance and even broke men’s records. For example, Caitlin surpassed Pete Maravich’s NCAA achievement, set in 1970. Maravich stopped at 3667 points, and a very fragile girl with a height of 183 cm raised the bar to 3685. Of course, you can remember that in Maravich’s time there were no three-point shots, but these are particularities.

Caitlin signed with the Indiana Fever, who selected her first overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft. 13 thousand spectators came to see Clarke’s debut in the professional club – a huge audience for an exhibition meeting. Especially considering that Fever matches last season never attracted more than four thousand fans.

Caitlin Clark / Photo: © Steph Chambers / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Clarke broke into professional basketball by scoring 100 points in just six games, the third-most in league history. Spectators flocked to the stands to see the rising star live. Thus, more than 20 thousand tickets were sold for the Washington Mystics – Indiana Fever match, which has not happened in the WNBA for 17 years.

The Americans dreamed of seeing Clarke at the Games in Paris. But Caitlin was not taken to the Olympics.

From the colony to the parquet

But the US team’s entry included the notorious Greiner, who was sentenced by the Khimki City Court to nine years in prison for drug smuggling. But ten months later the American went home.

Clark and Griner play different positions and are not competing for a roster spot. But Brittney’s very inclusion in the Olympic team looks like a political action. Moreover, Greiner broke her big toe in May, missing the start of the WNBA season, and the basketball player will not be in the best shape for the Games. But Greiner is a recent prisoner for whom President Joe Biden himself harnessed, although now the head of the White House hardly remembers this.

The Americans have won the last seven Olympics, but their amazing streak could be interrupted if the team voluntarily gives up strong players. However, in the US, the main thing seems to be putting on a show with Greiner.

Brittney Greiner / Photo: © Paras Griffin / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

“They woke the beast”

Clark reacted sharply to not making the US Olympic team.

“She found out about it on the bus, after which she wrote to me so that I knew too. I just tried to cheer her up in return. The answer was: “They woke the beast.” I think it’s a great reaction,” Fever head coach Christy Sides was quoted as saying by CBS Sports.

Clark soon cooled down and a few days later said that she would root for her compatriots, and her Olympics were still ahead. Interestingly, Katelyn is adored by fans, but not by her colleagues. Almost every game she gets pushed in the back, punched from behind, spat at. For example, in the match with the Chicago Sky, Angel Reese hit Katelyn hard with her shoulder, drawing an unsportsmanlike foul. So Sportskeeda columnist Nanji Ranjan noted that Clarke missed out on the Olympic team for reasons other than sporting ones.

— Clark is a foreign body in the team, capable of blowing up the atmosphere within the team. She’s too different from everyone else. She attracted the attention of the press and fans. The rest of the female basketball players feel left out,” wrote Sportskeeda columnist Ranjan.

Of course, sooner or later the company that has settled in the national team will leave the stage, and then… In the meantime, Clark will watch how others play. However, it turned out that American Chelsea Gray is unlikely to have time to heal her injury before the start of the Games – this is a chance for Caitlin. Whether the girl will be accepted by the US national team serpentarium is another matter.