A dramatic profile of Caitlin Clark and her record-breaking year in women’s basketball, the unprecedented media attention this national phenom has received, and the seismic effect she has had not just on WNBA attendance and TV ratings but on the way Americans view female athletes—by award-winning television commentator and USA TODAY columnist Christine Brennan.
A revolution has been ignited in women’s sports. Much like Tiger Woods’s arrival on the golf scene, what Clark has brought to women’s basketball is without precedent. Prior to entering the WNBA, she was the highest-scoring college basketball player—male or female—in NCAA Division I history, and her last college game with Iowa was the first women’s national championship final to outdraw that of the men. In her rookie season as the WNBA’s No. 1 pick, league sales are up nearly 100% and Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, has emerged as the WNBA’s top-trending team with ticket sales more than ten times higher than last year, sold-out arenas coast to coast, and historic TV ratings.
Now, in On Her Game, we get an all-access pass to one of the most exciting and important young athletes our nation has produced. Drawing on extensive interviews and exclusive, behind-the-scenes reporting, national sports columnist Christine Brennan recounts the highlights of Clark’s magnificent rookie year as the Fever star sets social media ablaze with her stunning must-see feats. A supremely confident performer, Clark has stayed serene amid the whirlwind of attention, simultaneously handling rival players eager to challenge her as well as nonstop questions from reporters about the many issues that have swirled around her and the WNBA.
If there was any doubt before, there is none now: the Clark phenomenon is proving that female athletes can garner as much media attention as their male counterparts—and lucrative endorsement deals. Clark arrived as a sports and cultural icon fifty years after Title IX opened the floodgates for girls and women to play sports in America. Now, the historic interest she has received from journalists and fans of all ages is paving the way for female athletes across all sports for the next fifty years.