2002–present
Who Is Caitlin Clark?
Professional basketball player Caitlin Clark is a guard for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever and the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I competition. The Iowa native was a coveted high school recruit and committed to play at the University of Iowa, where she became one of the sport’s most popular players. Utilizing her impressive shooting accuracy, she recorded 3,951 points in her collegiate career and won two Naismith College Player of the Year awards. Clark turned pro in 2024, helping the Indiana Fever set a WNBA attendance record after her No. 1 draft selection. As a result, Time named her the 2024 Athlete of the Year.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Caitlin Elizabeth Clark
BORN: January 22, 2002
BIRTHPLACE: Des Moines, Iowa
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
HEIGHT: 6 ft.
Where Is Caitlin Clark From?
Caitlin Elizabeth Clark was born on January 22, 2002, in Des Moines, Iowa, and raised in neighboring West Des Moines. Her parents are Brent Clark, the executive vice president of an industrial equipment supplier, and Anne Nizzi-Clark, a marketing executive. Caitlin also has an older brother, Blake, and a younger brother, Colin.
The middle child showed a competitive streak from an early age, taking on her siblings in backyard competitions. “No matter what I did, whether I was playing a sport, or playing a board game, or was at school, like, I wanted to win,” she said. “I feel like that was always my mindset, and that hasn’t really changed.”
Clark played the piano growing up, but from a young age, she gravitated toward athletics. An ambitious child, she played basketball, volleyball, tennis, softball, golf, and soccer. However, basketball emerged as her primary sport around sixth grade when she joined the All Iowa Attack. The elite travel team has produced more than 300 collegiate players. As Clark sharpened her skills, she looked up to NBA stars, such as Stephen Curry and LeBron James, but her favorite player was WNBA star Maya Moore, who previously played at University of Connecticut.
Due to limited opportunities for girls sports, Clark played on an all-boys team in elementary school. By the time she arrived at Dowling Catholic High School, where she graduated in 2020, Clark had built her reputation as a hoops prodigy.
Basketball Career: Iowa and WNBA
Interest in Clark’s skills on the court only grew as she dominated during high school competition. The talented guard earned Gatorade Iowa Player of the Year awards her junior and senior years and became a two-time MaxPreps and USA Today All-America selection. The teenager simultaneously shined on the international stage, winning gold medals with USA Basketball’s U16 and U19 teams at FIBA Americas and World Cup tournaments.
The fourth-ranked recruit in the 2020 high school class, Clark drew the attention of elite NCAA programs. She received scholarship offers from Notre Dame, Iowa, Texas, Oregon, and Iowa State, among other schools. Although Clark gave a verbal commitment to Notre Dame, she ultimately changed her mind and chose to remain in her home state and attend the University of Iowa.
NCAA All-American at Iowa
Clark made her Hawkeyes debut on November 25, 2020, and recorded 27 points and eight rebounds in a win over the University of Northern Iowa. It was a fitting start to her history-making college tenure. She kept up a torrid scoring pace throughout her freshman season, ultimately leading the NCAA in points per game (26.6), assists (214), made field goals (266), and made 3-point field goals (116).
The impressive stat line was a reflection of her seemingly unlimited shooting range, with Clark capable of hitting baskets from the half-court logo. She credits her balance and lower-body strength for her accuracy. “I was a soccer player growing up… and I think that’s where I kind of got my leg strength from,” she told 60 Minutes.
Clark continued to dominate as a sophomore, again leading NCAA Division I in scoring en route to Big Ten Player of the Year and Associated Press All-America honors. However, the season ended in heartbreak when No. 2 seed Iowa lost to underdog Creighton in the second round of the 2022 NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Clark took the defeat to heart, spending the offseason building strength in the weight room to handle the full-pressure defense she regularly faced. “When you get into the tournament, there’s going to be things that don’t go your way. Shots aren’t going to fall, and you need to find another way to win,” Clark said. “It’s focusing on everything else that you can do to get better and not let that happen again.”
Her commitment paid off, as the Hawkeyes advanced to the NCAA semifinals a year later where they faced undefeated South Carolina, the defending champion. Clark played one of her best games of the season, scoring 41 points and leading a 77-73 upset.
After this, roughly 9.9 million fans—a record for NCAA women’s basketball—tuned in to watch Clark and her Iowa teammates face LSU in the national championship. Ultimately, LSU star Angel Reese and the Tigers pulled away late for a 102-85 win, setting the stage for an individual rivalry between the two stars.
College Basketball Scoring Record
Following Iowa’s compelling tournament run, all eyes were on Clark for the 2023-24 season as she inched closer to breaking multiple college basketball records—including the most points in NCAA Division I history.
On February 15, 2024, she scored 49 points against Michigan to pass former University of Washington star Kelsey Plum as the NCAA all-time leading women’s scorer in 13 fewer games than Plum. “I don’t know if you could script it any better. Just to do it in this fashion, I’m very grateful and thankful to be surrounded by so many people who have been my foundation in everything I’ve done since I was a young little girl,” Clark said.
A couple weeks later, Clark passed Pete Maravich as the top career scorer in men’s or women’s NCAA competition, eventually finishing the season with 3,951 career points. (Pearl Moore still holds the all-time collegiate mark of 4,061 points, but she set it before women’s basketball was sanctioned by the NCAA.) Clark also won her second straight Naismith College Player of the Year award.
Iowa entered the 2024 NCAA tournament as one of the top four seeds and again reached the championship game for a rematch with South Carolina. The game smashed the viewership record from the prior year, with an average of 18.7 million people tuning in to watch. Despite scoring 30 points, Clark was denied another title due to an 87-75 loss.
It marked her last college game. Despite having another year of NCAA eligibility, Clark soon announced her plans to turn pro and declare for the WNBA draft. To honor the star, Iowa retired her No. 22 jersey in February 2025.
WNBA Rookie of the Year
A near lock as the top draft pick, Clark made a cameo appearance on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in April 2024. Days later, she joined the Indiana Fever as the No. 1 selection and started her pro career.
Unintimidated by the big stage, Clark helped the team end a seven-year postseason drought with her record-setting play. She recorded the most points (769), assists (337), and 3-point field goals (122) by a rookie in WNBA history and was named an all-star and Rookie of the Year.
Just as remarkable was Clark’s effect on ticket and merchandise sales. The Fever set the WNBA single-season home attendance record, and total league attendance rose 48 percent. Due to the popularity of Clark’s No. 22 memorabilia, Indiana reported a 1,193 percent yearly increase in jersey sales by August 2024.
However, Clark’s season wasn’t without controversy. Despite her strong play, she wasn’t selected for the 2024 U.S. Olympic team—drawing the ire of fans. She was also on the receiving end of multiple hard fouls, including one by former college foe Angel Reese that sparked talk of a rivalry beyond basketball. Clark has downplayed this speculation: “We’re competitors. That’s the way the game should be. It’s going to get a little feisty. It’s going to get physical. But at the end of the day, both teams are just trying to win.”
In any case, Caitlin Clark mania was real. Time named Clark the 2024 Athlete of the Year, and Forbes included her on a list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
Stats and Height
Clark, a 6-foot guard, is known as much for her passing ability as her scoring accuracy. She also has a history of stepping up her game when it matters most, boasting career records for points (491), assists (152), and 3-point field goals (78) in NCAA tournament play. Here is a summary of her college and pro stats as of March 2025:
College
- Games played: 139
- Points: 3,951
- Points per game: 28.4
- 3-point field goals: 548
- Assists: 1,144
- Rebounds: 990
WNBA
- Games played: 40
- Points: 769
- Points per game: 19.2
- 3-point field goals: 122
- Assists: 337
- Rebounds: 227
- Turnovers: 223
Salary and Contract
Clark is entering the second season of her four-year WNBA rookie contract with the Indiana Fever. Her average annual salary is just over $84,000—a small amount compared to her reported $28 million, multiyear endorsement deal with Nike.
Clark’s low pay in relation to her WNBA value has sparked additional criticism of the league’s wage gap compared to professional men’s players. According to CNBC, the WNBA league minimum salary is $64,154 compared to the league minimum $1.15 million for NBA players.
Still, Clark has amassed an estimated net worth of $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. This stems largely from her college name, image, and likeness (NIL) partnerships, which the NCAA legalized in 2021 to allow athletes to profit from endorsements and business deals. While at Iowa, Clark had sponsorship deals with companies including Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, and Buick. By 2024, her partnerships were worth an estimated $3.4 million, according to On3.
Boyfriend and Personal Life
Clark has been dating former Iowa men’s basketball player Connor McCaffery since April 2023. McCaffery, who is a couple years older than Clark, graduated from Iowa that same year with degrees in finance and political science. He worked as a basketball development coordinator for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and is currently an assistant coach for the Butler University men’s basketball team.
Clark offered a peek at their relationship in September 2024, telling reporters they often compete in late-night shootarounds since both are based in Indianapolis. “I think more than anything though, he’s just very supportive and kind of lets me do my thing. That’s something I really appreciate about him is just his support and his passion for basketball,” she said. “He’s very honest. He definitely tells me when I’m wrong, too, and that’s something that I appreciate as well.”
When she isn’t playing basketball, Clark enjoys other sports. An avid golfer, she teed off in a 2024 LPGA pro-am event with Nelly Korda, the No. 1-ranked player in the world. That same year, Clark joined an ownership group seeking to bring a NWSL team to Cincinnati, but the bid was unsuccessful.
The hoops star also established the Caitlin Clark Foundation, which seeks “to uplift and improve the lives of youth and their communities through education, nutrition, and sports.”
Quotes
- Basketball isn’t my everything. Like, yeah, I love it, and I get to do it, and it’s given me a lot of really great opportunities, but at the same time you know, win or loss, I feel like I try to be the same person.
- I think I’ve hated losing even before I can remember. When I was growing up, all I did was cry when I lost.
- The people that I idolized in my life were either professional basketball players, professional soccer players, and that’s what I wanted to be growing up, and I think understanding how big of an impact that can have on a young girl’s life is super important. So I always try to make as much time as I can for them and just to see them scream your name or have your jersey on, that’s something that never gets old.
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Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
