Clark invited to Olympic camp before Final Four

ALBANY, N.Y. — Caitlin Clark will be busy on women’s Final Four weekend in Cleveland whether her Iowa Hawkeyes make it that far or not.

USA Basketball on Thursday confirmed Clark is invited to take part in the Olympic training camp in Cleveland on April 3-5. The Final Four is April 5-7.

Clark’s Hawkeyes are the No. 1 seed in the Albany 2 Region, and face No. 5 Colorado here on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Iowa is hoping to make the Final Four for the second year in a row.

If the Hawkeyes fall short, Clark can take part in the USA senior team camp. She has earned three gold medals with USA Basketball junior national teams, most recently with the 2021 USA Women’s U19 National Team.

Clark, who leads Division I in scoring, assists and 3-pointers, is expected to be the WNBA’s No. 1 draft pick by the Indiana Fever on April 15.

No dates have been announced for when the women’s U.S. Olympic 5-on-5 and 3×3 teams will be named for the Paris Games, which are July 26 to August 11. Clark could be named to either team, but there is a lot of U.S. veteran depth at guard. The Americans are going for their eighth consecutive 5-on-5 gold medal, and they won the inaugural 3×3 Olympic tournament at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

In all, nine former Olympians will be taking part in the Cleveland camp, including five-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury. The other past Olympians are Ariel Atkins (Washington Mystics); Chelsea Gray, A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young (Las Vegas Aces); Brittney Griner (Mercury); Jewell Loyd (Seattle Storm); and Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty).

The past two WNBA No. 1 draft picks, Aliyah Boston (Fever) and Rhyne Howard (Atlanta Dream), are also among those invited to the camp.