Caitlin Clark may be the most famous 22-year-old in America right now, but the newly minted Indiana Fever rookie isn’t letting that cloud her vision.
“I don’t view myself like that. I just go about my daily life,” she tells Women’s Health exclusively a few hours after officially becoming the number one pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. “Obviously, it’s changed a little bit, but I’m just myself. I do what I want to. I live exactly the same way that I did before this.”
For a once-in-a-generation basketball player like Caitlin Clark, daily life these days tends to include achievements like setting the NCAA all-time scoring record, leading the University of Iowa to two National Championship games in a row, and having her jersey number 22 retired by the school. She says her secret to handling each milestone of her career with apparent ease is the self-assurance she gets from putting in countless hours of work in the gym and knowing she’s prepared for every possible outcome.
“I’m just confident in every single thing I do,” Caitlin says. “The best thing you can do as a leader is own when you do something really great [and] own when it doesn’t go right.”
Losing to South Carolina in this year’s championship game certainly wasn’t the ending Caitlin hoped for, and that was compounded by the fact that she immediately had to turn around and prepare for a rookie season that starts less than a month from now. It helped, she says, that she decided early on to declare for the WNBA Draft so that she could savor every moment, positive or negative.
“I have so much to be proud of,” she says of her four years making history at Iowa. “I’ve been able to have a lot of closure in my college career, whether it was that last loss or whether it was Senior Night. I knew this was the end.” And while Caitlin enjoyed “every single second” of it, she’s ready for a new challenge with the Fever. “I’m itching to get to Indianapolis,” she says with a smile.
Of course there will be pressure. “I certainly know it’s there. It’s not anything I ever shy away from,” Caitlin admits. “The biggest thing is, I rely on the people around me. Basketball is not an individual sport, it’s a team sport.”
She tries to be a rock for her teammates in return, building their confidence back when mistakes are made or hyping them up when they crush it on the court. Moments before our interview, in the middle of a hectic press circuit, she took the time to record a congratulatory message for Iowa teammate Kate Martin, who traveled to Brooklyn to support Caitlin and ended up getting drafted by the Las Vegas Aces herself. The encouragement always goes both ways.
Caitlin is also a big proponent of therapy and working with sports psychologists, something she found “super helpful” throughout her time at Iowa. “That should be normal for college student athletes,” she says, acknowledging that therapy can be a place to share both the letdowns and the great things that happen along the way.
“It’s such a stressful period of your life,” she says. “You’re 18 to 22 years old and trying to figure out which way your life’s going to go while so many eyeballs are on you, and it can be difficult at times.”
Caitlin’s family, who was with her at the WNBA Draft and has been at every game before that, is also feeling the increased attention lately. “It can definitely be stressful on them, too,” she says. “Their lives have changed as well as mine.”
But more importantly, they’re the primary source of energy and strength that keeps her grounded. “I’m so lucky to have a great support system that has been at every single one of my games and made so many amazing memories alongside me. Not everybody always gets that,” she says. “I don’t think that’s going to change when I go into the league.”
If Caitlin has anything to say about it, not much else will change for her as she embarks on her much-anticipated WNBA career—in fact, she believes the key to her success is that she has always stayed true to herself.
“I’ve never changed who I am,” she says. “I’m still Caitlin Clark from West Des Moines, Iowa, and that will never change.”
And so far, she’s on the right track.
Amanda Lucci is the director of special projects at Women’s Health and a NASM-certified personal trainer. She has more than 12 years of experience writing, editing, and managing social media strategy for national and international publications.
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