Caitlin Clark says she's not disappointed with Olympics snub - ESPN

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, the No. 1 pick in April's WNBA draft, said she is excited to root for the U.S. women's basketball team in the upcoming Paris Olympics and wasn't disappointed to not be on the team — but she did see it as motivation.

USA Basketball hasn't formally released the 12 team members, but it was leaked and confirmed Saturday by ESPN.

«I'm excited for the girls that are on the team,» Clark told reporters Sunday. «I know it's the most competitive team in the world and I know it could have gone either way — me being on the team or me not being on the team. I'm going to be rooting them on to win gold. I was a kid that grew up watching the Olympics, so it will be fun to watch them.

»Honestly, no disappointment. It just gives me something to work for; it's a dream. Hopefully one day I can be there. I think it's just a little more motivation. You remember that. Hopefully when four years comes back around, I can be there."

Clark turned 22 in January. The U.S. roster does not include any players under 26, the age of New York's Sabrina Ionescu and Las Vegas' Jackie Young, who like Clark were WNBA No. 1 picks. It will be Ionescu's first Olympic appearance and Young's second — she won gold with the U.S. 3x3 team in the 2020 Games.

That age factor makes the roster for the Paris Games different from any of the previous 12 for the U.S. women, which includes 1980 when the Americans named a team but didn't compete because the United States boycotted the Moscow Games.

The Americans have had at least two players under age 25 on every other Olympic roster dating back to the 1976 Montreal Games, when women's basketball debuted as an Olympic sport. The youngest ever to play for the U.S. women in the Olympics was