With the calendar reaching December, it’s time for many outlets and publications to take a look back at the year that was in 2024. And it’s no surprise that Caitlin Clark is starting to rack up awards and honors for her incredible year in both the college and professional game of basketball.
Clark’s journey from college basketball to the WNBA brought historic growth and viewership numbers to both. And although she fell just short of winning a title, she was able to lead the Iowa Hawkeyes to another national championship game and the Indiana Fever to the WNBA Playoffs in the greatest rookie season in league history.
For her impact both on and off the floor, Caitlin Clark was honored by Time Magazine as their “Athlete of the Year.”
Caitlin Clark is TIME’s Athlete of the Year https://t.co/WtgLuIIYhb pic.twitter.com/oGDewhUPcB
— TIME (@TIME) December 10, 2024
While Sports Illustrated has named their athlete/sportsperson of the year for much longer, Time has gotten in on the act recently as well. Their “Athlete of the Year” honor dates back to 2019 when it was given to the United States Women’s National Team in soccer. Other recipients include LeBron James, Simone Biles, Aaron Judge, and Lionel Messi.
Clark spoke in the accompanying feature piece about her incredible 2024 and gave a single word that described it all: historic.
When asked to define her year in one word, Clark chooses historic. Clark, it quickly becomes clear, is polite and down-to-earth but also has not an ounce of false humility. “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,” she says. Good luck naming another player who altered the trajectory of their entire team sport within five months on the job. Lionel Messi had a monumental influence on Major League Soccer when he arrived in Miami last year, but he was in year 20 of his pro career. Michael Jordan energized the NBA in the mid-1980s, but Larry Bird and Magic Johnson had already put the league on solid footing. While other female athletes have pushed the limits of human achievement and created their own cultures—Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and the stars of the U.S. women’s national soccer team all come to mind—the Clark phenomenon is still unprecedented. It’s one thing to rally around athletes during global spectacles like tennis majors or an Olympics or a World Cup. It’s quite another to turn routine regular-season games in the WNBA, a league neglected for far too long over its 27-year history, into appointment viewing.
Historic is probably the best word that could describe Clark’s impact not just on women’s basketball, but on sports in general.
Her presence in the NCAA Women’s National Championship Game saw a record 18.7 million viewers tune in. It was the most watched sporting event outside of the Olympics and football since 2019.
Those viewers followed her to the WNBA. Her debut game with the Fever was the most watched WNBA game in two decades. The WNBA All-Star Game more than doubled its previous record viewership. And even against the NFL head-to-head, the Fever drew the highest playoff audience since 2000. Those are just a few of the incredible and historic milestones that Clark helped to set this year. And as her stardom continues to rise, there’s little doubt that those numbers will keep going up.
Caitlin Clark isn’t the only women’s basketball star that has helped to grow the game, but she is clearly the leading force behind its incredible growth. When it comes to the ratings impact and her name recognition and popularity, she is the most transcendent athlete for a sport since Tiger Woods. And she is just getting started.
