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Caitlin Clark wasn’t in attendance for the 2024 EPSY Awards, however she nonetheless had an enormous evening.
The WNBA star, 22, gained two awards — the primary of which she earned in the course of the Thursday, July 11, purple carpet broadcast. She took residence the trophy for Greatest Faculty Athlete Girls’s Sports activities earlier than Serena Williams took the stage to host the present.
As soon as the awards ceremony bought underway, Clark acquired her second award for Greatest File-Breaking Efficiency, beating out the NFL’s Christian McCaffrey. Regardless of being out of state, she shared a digital message for her acceptance speech.
“I simply needed to say thanks for this recognition. Clearly, I couldn’t be there tonight,” she advised the viewers, noting, “I’m slightly bit busy in Indianapolis.”
She gushed: “This award means so much not solely to myself however to my teammates and coaches that I had on the College of Iowa. It’s particular for all of us and it was a particular 12 months in girls’s athletics. Thanks, ESPN.”
Clark concluded, “I simply need to give a shout-out to all of the nominees and award winners tonight. I’m unhappy I couldn’t be there however I hope you all have a tremendous evening.”
Forward of the occasion, Clark was essentially the most nominated athlete, racking up three nods for Greatest Athlete, Girls’s Sports activities, Greatest Faculty Athlete, Girls’s Sports activities and Greatest File-Breaking Efficiency for turning into the NCAA’s All-Time Scoring Chief.
Clark’s reputation has been on the rise since her spectacular run taking part in faculty basketball on the College of Iowa. In April, she was chosen because the No. 1 general choose within the 2024 WNBA draft, and he or she made her skilled debut with the Indiana Fever the next month.
Regardless of her ubiquity as of late, Clark didn’t make the U.S. girls’s basketball crew for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In June, she reacted to being left off of the roster.
“I’m excited for the women [who] are on the crew,” Clark advised Indy Star sports activities reporter Chloe Peterson on the time. “I do know it’s essentially the most aggressive crew on the earth and I do know it may have gone both means with me being on the crew [or] me not being on the crew. I’m excited for them.”
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Caitlin Clark Michael Hickey/Getty Pictures
She added: “I’m going to be rooting them on to win gold. I used to be a child that grew up watching the Olympics, so it’ll be enjoyable to observe them.”
Clark insisted that she had “no disappointment” over not incomes a spot on the crew.
“I feel it provides you one thing to work for. , it’s a dream and hopefully sooner or later I’ll be there,” she continued. “I feel it’s just a bit extra motivation … and hopefully in 4 years — when 4 years comes again round — I might be there.”
Amid her rising impression on the sports activities world, some have criticized Clark’s reputation, claiming that her race has factored into it. Nevertheless, Stephen A. Smith defended Clark in an unique interview with Us Weekly.
“I feel, as a society, now we have to develop up,” he mentioned in Might. “Race is all the time a element we are able to’t ignore, however it doesn’t all the time must be destructive. Once you take a look at Caitlin Clark — sure, she’s white, and sure, she’s getting a degree of shine that others earlier than her didn’t get who occurred to be Black they usually have been terrific gamers — however that’s an indictment towards society.”
Smith, 56, famous that the media “goes to go the place the story is” and Clark “has achieved an exceptional job turning herself right into a story,” including, “She occurs to be white, but additionally occurs to be a terrific basketball participant, a terrific particular person with terrific household background with terrific marketability property.”
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