The "Caitlin Clark Effect", much more than a sports phenomenon

Record after record, from university basketball to the WNBA, leaving an entire movement behind and reaching milestones that were considered unattainable for a female basketball player before Caitlin Clark. Unprecedented numbers on and off the court that would have been unthinkable for anyone, but now for the Indiana Fevers player - as Federico Buffa would say - sound almost insulting. In fact, it's an unnecessary trivialisation of the shockwave that the so-called "Caitlin Clark effect" has been to women's sport to reduce it all to the endless firsts she has collected in her early years as a university and professional player. Last week, the Des Moines, Iowa, native was named Time's Athlete of the Year, an honour that transcends sports in the strictest sense and recognises the historic and revolutionary scope of her journey.

Not everyone in the United States has welcomed the New Yorker's magazine choice - and if anything, they have - but it's clear that it's about points of view. Or rather, points of view from which to view the recognition and the logic with which to categorise the resulting prestige. It should be emphasised that the choice of Time, a global media company concerned with society and culture, is not and is not intended to be an objective nomination based on comparative performance or meritocratic criteria, such as the Ballon D'Or and other such awards. Let's start here to understand what Caitlin Clark's 2024 means and why it represents something unprecedented.

Time Magazine's Athlete of the Year

Time is a nomination derived from the sports year, but lifestyle-driven and unashamedly America-centric - so much so that before Clark, recent covers went to “colleague" LeBron James (after winning the Bubble, certainly not the highlight of his career), gymnast Simone Biles (years after her Olympic success in Rio de Janeiro), baseball player Aaron Judge (after his iconic 62-home run season) and Lionel Messi (36, after landing at Inter Miami). It's clear that this is an award based on public perception and the cultural impact of athletes, and its boundaries align with those of the US. Furthermore, this award joins a long tradition of Time's Person of the Year, which has celebrated sports icons such as Jesse Owens and Muhammad Ali in the past.

So it is not a question of rewarding those who have achieved memorable feats, but of recognising those who have made their sporting year a mass phenomenon - a rationale that would have made the non-election of Caitlin Clark impossible or almost impossible. After all, we're talking about an athlete who has smashed records and shattered boundaries in a matter of months, been listed by Forbes as one of the 100 most influential women in the world (taking the baton from Serena Williams), reshaped a league (actually two) and, without exaggeration, taken women's basketball to a new dimension. “And counting",” as they say overseas, for a girl who is not yet 23 years old and has only had one professional season.

The “Caitlin Clark effect”

Just days before the 2024 WNBA Draft, where Clark was selected first overall by Indiana, a historic game for women's basketball took place on 7 April: the NCAA University Championship final between the Iowa Hawkeyes (the university team Caitlin played for four years) and the South Carolina Gamecocks. Despite the number 22's incredible performance, Iowa was defeated for the second year in a row, but the “Caitlin Clark effect” was made clearer than ever by the game's ratings. With around 19 million viewers, the game was watched by more viewers than the men's NCAA Finals for the first time in history; and not only that, it even surpassed an NBA Finals game, which is actually unthinkable.

After breaking all kinds of records in the university arena - both on and off the court - the “Caitlin Clark effect” has now arrived in the professional league. The adaptation to the new context was not immediate: Clark needed some time to adjust her shot (a speciality of her, as is often compared to Stephen Curry) and limit her ball losses (10 in her debut, a bad record, but as Caitlin says “the best passes are made by those who dare to miss”); in any case, the haul at the end of the season - completed in the first round of the playoffs - testifies to another year destined for the annals. After all, the list of records that were set even after promotion is endless.

His debut captivated 2.1 million American viewers, the best TV ratings for a regular season WNBA game in the last 23 years. And from then on, Clark continued to break records at every turn: from the 20.711 in the stands for the showdown against the Washington Mystics (a new all-time high for the league and a +264% increase in Indiana's attendance over the previous year), to the women's basketball social media boom (with 800 million views, the Indiana Fever's profiles surpassed every team in the country's most popular professional leagues); from the $28 million from the sponsorship deal with Nike (numbers their peers can't even imagine), to the team's +1193% (no joke) merchandising numbers.

Maybe we on this side of the ocean don't fully appreciate all of that, but it's necessary to point out that just watching some of the highlights of women's university basketball on our screens is a powerful signal. And that's nothing compared to the “Caitlin mania” she's created in the United States, where she's gone from university prodigy to the face of the top professional league. And in a broader sense, from a basketball player to a symbol of a movement and a point of reference for the younger generation. Nancy Lieberman, WNBA legend and the first female coach in NBA history, has called her “the Taylor Swift of women's basketball”; and the singer, for her part, has never made a secret of the fact that she is a supporter.

A global ambassador

In a league where many players speak out on social and political issues, the young Clark has so far kept a very low profile. “I know people expect me to say and do certain things, but I want to do them in the right way when I feel ready. Maybe I don't always say the right things,“ she added recently in response to criticism on social media, ”but I'm learning.” A spontaneous message that should remind the public of her young age, and perhaps also a useful lesson, namely that it is foolish to expect unconditional (and perhaps spontaneous) social, civic and political engagement from any athlete, young or not, male or female, with all the communication skills that this requires. Especially when we are talking about a 22-year-old girl who has never been in contact with the media and for this reason has no real comparative value. Still, when given the opportunity to speak on the topic of racial privilege raised by A'ja Wilson, Clark didn't avoid the topic, but responded with maturity. “I wish I could say that everything I've achieved is all because of me,” she explained, ”but I know that I have privileges as a white girl that other girls don't have.” It wasn't an act of defence, but an attempt - far from obvious for someone her age - to have a constructive dialogue.

Furthermore, Caitlin's social influence makes such criticism inappropriate - one could even say unfair. In fact, the player from Indiana is showing the world that the divide between women's and men's sports - in terms of attention, numbers, relevance and potential - is no longer so abysmal. The Time article states: “Clark isn't just playing basketball, she's changing the way the world views women's sports” It's no coincidence that the Iowa native was named the 2024 Athlete of the Year in a year that marked a significant turning point for women's sports - from gender equality at the Olympics to the most-watched NWSL final ever, from the record valuation of the Angel City FC football franchise to the recent market estimates of more than $1.5 billion in estimated growth over the next three years for women's basketball and football.

While the road to equality is still long, women's sports are on the rise, and “in these cases, sometimes the breakthrough can come through an ambassador like Caitlin,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said. “We have her to thank,” she added later, ”because she's taken our sport to a new level.” And that's what makes Caitlin Clark a generational phenomenon.