Caitlin Clark Adds AP Female Athlete of the Year to List of Accolades
2024 was quite the year for Caitlin Clark. Not only did she break the NCAA scoring record while leading Iowa back to the national championship game, but she took the entire WNBA by storm as a rookie with the Indiana Fever.
Both her play and her massive impact on women's basketball have been honored in a variety of ways. The latest is being named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, which, of course, comes shortly after she was also recognized as TIME's Athlete of the Year.
The AP singled out her accomplishments on and off the court in an article announcing the award. Clark received nearly half of the first-place votes from the group of journalists involved in the process, with Simone Biles coming in second.
Caitlin Clark honored as AP Female Athlete of the Year following her impact on women's sports https://t.co/FUpdChPSI5
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 24, 2024
Clark joins Sheryl Swoopes (1993), Rebecca Lobo (1995), and Candace Parker (2008, 2021) as the only WNBA players to receive the distinction from the AP.
Clark specifically mentioned Parker and those that came before her as an inspiration in comments made to the AP. She added, “It was a great year for women’s basketball.”
The latter point certainly cannot be argued and even if her remarks were much more humble, Clark is the central reason for the game's explosive growth. This can be proven by nearly any objective measure used to evaluate popularity, including attendance and television ratings.
Clark has collected a ton of hardware for her accomplishments in 2024 (including the Wooden Award and WNBA Rookie of the Year), but the accolades are obviously deserved. Because there's no telling if any of us will ever again see a year quite like the one the Fever star had from college to the pros.
Robin Lundberg is a media veteran and hoops head who has spent the bulk of his career with iconic brands like Sports Illustrated and ESPN. His insights have also been featured on platforms such as Fox and CNN and he can currently be heard hosting shows for Sirius XM and on his burgeoning YouTube show. And now he brings his basketball expertise to Women's Fastbreak on SI!