Not Having Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese Impacted Team USA In Olympic TV Ratings

Well, to state the obvious: not having Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese on the Team USA Olympic women's basketball team impacted the viewership of the gold medal game. 

Everyone knew that would be the case, but those in charge of selecting the players for the United States Olympic team didn't want to anger its players by having Clark on the roster. 

Selection committee chair Jen Rizzotti even said it would be "irresponsible" to have Clark on the team just to increase the number of people who would watch the team play in Paris. 

The Team USA women's basketball squad won the gold medal, but viewership was flat from 2021 because Caitlin Clark wasn't on the team. 

(David Berding/Getty Images)

She went on to say that winning the gold medal was the only thing that mattered. Although, I feel confident in saying that if Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese had made the Team USA Olympics roster, the team still would have won the gold. 

Either way, mission accomplished! The team won the gold medal and successfully did not draw any of the "new" women's basketball fans to their television screens. 

The game averaged 7.8 million viewers, the exact same number that watched the team win the gold medal in Tokyo in 2021. 

As you can see from the post above, you have a liberal media member immediately pointing out that the game was played at 9:30 a.m. because they are already preparing their defense of Team USA for not selecting Clark. 

But, here's the thing: the Tokyo gold medal game happened during COVID and Olympic ratings were TERRIBLE across the board. 

The men's basketball gold medal game in 2024 averaged over 20 million viewers, more than double the 9.3 million that watched in 2021. 

In fact, the 2024 women's gold medal game was the lowest-rated final match since 2008.

At a time when women's basketball is supposedly "exploding in popularity," how is Team USA drawing the same audience as 2021; a smaller audience than in 2016 (8.1 million); and, a much smaller audience than in 2012 (10.2 million)? 

The answer is obvious: women's basketball is "exploding in popularity" because Caitlin Clark is the most popular female athlete in the United States right now, quite possibly the world. 

Not having her on Team USA hurt the visibility of the team, as we all predicted that it would.