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Caitlin Elizabeth Clark was born January 22, 2002, in Des Moines, Iowa, the daughter of Brent Clark, a sales executive, and Anne Nizzi-Clark, a former marketing executive whose father coached football at Dowling Catholic High School. She started in boys' rec leagues at age five because her father couldn't find a girls' team for her age group. By thirteen she was playing several years up.
At Dowling Catholic she scored 60 points in a single game against Mason City as a junior on February 4, 2019, draining 13 three-pointers — a state record. She finished high school with 2,547 career points, fourth on Iowa's five-on-five all-time list, and 283 career threes. She was named McDonald's All-American and Iowa Miss Basketball, and committed to Iowa over Notre Dame, Iowa State, and Texas.
Her college career rewrote the record book. As a freshman in 2020-21 she led NCAA Division I in scoring at 26.6 points per game. As a sophomore she became the first women's player ever to lead Division I in both points and assists in the same season. As a junior, in the 2023 Elite Eight against Louisville, she put up 41 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds — the first 40-point triple-double in tournament history, men's or women's. Iowa beat undefeated South Carolina in the Final Four, ending a 42-game win streak.
The senior year is when the numbers turned absurd. On October 15, 2023, an exhibition against DePaul at Kinnick Stadium drew 55,646 fans, a women's basketball attendance record. On February 15, 2024, she dropped 49 points on Michigan to pass Kelsey Plum as the NCAA Division I women's all-time scoring leader. On February 28, she passed Lynette Woodard for the all-time major-college mark. On March 3, against Ohio State, she passed Pete Maravich's 54-year-old NCAA Division I career scoring record — men's or women's. She finished her Iowa career with 3,951 points, 548 three-pointers, 1,144 assists, and 17 triple-doubles. Her career scoring average of 28.42 points per game is the highest in Division I history.
The viewership followed her. The 2023 national championship against LSU drew 9.9 million viewers — the most-watched women's college basketball game ever to that point. The 2024 final against South Carolina drew 18.9 million, the most-watched basketball game at any level since 2019 and the first women's NCAA final to outdraw the men's. Iowa's 2023-24 season generated $3.26 million in ticket revenue, the most ever for a women's college program. On3 estimated her NIL valuation at $3.4 million, fourth-highest among all college athletes.
The Indiana Fever took her first overall in the 2024 WNBA draft on April 15. The Wall Street Journal and The Athletic reported a pending eight-year, $28 million Nike deal — the largest sponsorship ever for a women's basketball player, with a signature shoe. Wilson signed her to the first signature basketball collection by any athlete since Michael Jordan, and the first ever for a woman.
The rookie season produced league records in stretches. On July 6, 2024, against the New York Liberty, she became the first rookie in WNBA history to record a triple-double. On July 17, she had 19 assists against the Dallas Wings — a single-game WNBA record, breaking Courtney Vandersloot's mark. She broke the league single-season assists record on September 13. She finished averaging 19.2 points and a league-leading 8.4 assists per game, with 122 three-pointers, second-most in a single season behind Sabrina Ionescu. She was named Rookie of the Year on 66 of 67 ballots and made the All-WNBA First Team — the first rookie since Candace Parker in 2008.
The Fever set a franchise single-season attendance record. Their regular-season finale drew 20,711, a WNBA attendance record. Time named her Athlete of the Year for 2024; the Associated Press named her Female Athlete of the Year.
Then 2025 came apart. She strained her left quadriceps on May 24, missing roughly two weeks. She injured her left groin on June 26 — her sixth absence of the season. She made the All-Star team as captain after a record 1,293,526 votes but didn't play due to injury, and didn't enter the three-point contest either. A right groin injury hit on July 15. On September 4, 2025, she announced she would not return for the rest of the season. She played 13 games total in 2025, averaging 16.5 points and 8.8 assists. She returned to the floor on April 25, 2026, scoring 7 points in a Fever preseason win over the Liberty — her first game in nine months.
Off the court the partnerships kept compounding. In August 2025 she became the first female athlete in a multi-year deal with Stanley. Forbes ranked her the fourth most powerful woman in American sports in 2025 and the top-ranked athlete on the list. Sportico valued the Indiana Fever at $335 million in 2025, second among WNBA franchises behind only the New York Liberty. The Fever sold out every home game in 2024 for the first time in franchise history, and average WNBA attendance leaguewide jumped 48% over 2023. National TV ratings for WNBA games rose 170% across her rookie year. A signed one-of-one rookie card sold for $660,000 in July 2025 — the most ever paid for a women's sports card, eclipsing a $366,000 Clark card sold four months earlier, which had itself surpassed a Serena Williams card for the prior record.