BONUS | Opinion: Is Caitlin Clark improving women's sports for the better or worse?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
People from across the country weighed in on the impact Indiana Fever's point guard Caitlin Clark is having on the WNBA and women's sports in general. Forum is a series from USA TODAY's Opinion team that is dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. If you'd like to weigh in on a different topic, you can find more questions at usatoday.com/forum. And if your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to [email protected].
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the excerpt. |
| 0:05.0 | Caitlin Clark is an athlete that has made more people pay attention to the WNBA. |
| 0:09.0 | She had a record-breaking rookie season with the Indiana fever last year. |
| 0:14.0 | As the 2025 season kicked off last month, we asked, |
| 0:17.0 | is there too much media coverage of Caitlin or too little, as she changed women's |
| 0:22.2 | sports for the better or made things worse? |
| 0:28.3 | I'm Michael McArthur. I leave the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA Today. |
| 0:33.7 | This is a special bonus episode of the excerpt, highlighting a series from USA Today's opinion team called Forum. |
| 0:40.4 | Here's what we heard from you about Caitlin Clark, the WNBA, and women's sports. |
| 0:46.4 | I think Caitlin gets the right amount of coverage for fans who may not have been paying attention, it may seem to be excessive. |
| 0:57.7 | But I do think there's some great players across the WNBA, and I'm really excited that the coverage seems to be getting a little bit better dispersed this year. |
| 1:07.4 | This is Teresa, a 58-year-old from Marietta, Georgia. She started watching WNBA |
| 1:12.9 | games and learning more about the league's players because of her interest in Caitlin. |
| 1:17.2 | I think Caitlin Clark is changing the WNBA in women's sports for the better. I think she has a |
| 1:23.9 | natural ability to attract attention, and she has a unique ability to tell a story. |
| 1:31.8 | She's very composed, and she's often cited going back to the history with Title IX and the |
| 1:38.8 | extent that the University of Iowa in particular championed it and calls back, you know, a lot of that support and |
| 1:47.0 | activity that maybe a lot of people just aren't as familiar with. I think that WNBA's newfound |
| 1:52.9 | popularity is here to stay. I think things fundamentally changed in the last four to five years. |
| 1:59.6 | Just from a behavioral perspective, I think people started |
| 2:03.2 | paying attention differently. But I think there's a more recognized acceptance of the WNBA. And you see that |
| 2:11.1 | from all walks of life, including their counterparts in the NBA, that they respect the game |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USA TODAY, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of USA TODAY and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.