“Caitlin Clark has officially joined the Canadian women's Olympic team.”
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No, Caitlin Clark didn’t join Canada’s Olympic team
If Your Time is short
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Canada Basketball confirmed that American basketball star Caitlin Clark has not joined Canada’s Olympic women’s basketball team.
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The image of Clark wearing the Canadian jersey appears to be edited.
Is basketball phenom Caitlin Clark trading the stars and stripes for a red maple leaf at the Summer Olympics in Paris?
"Caitlin Clark has officially joined the Canadian women's Olympic team" read a June 19 Threads post that featured an image of Clark in a Canadian basketball jersey.
But we’re calling foul. This claim is false.
(Screenshot of Threads post)
The Threads post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Threads, Facebook and Instagram.)
A Canada Basketball spokesperson told PolitiFact this claim is inaccurate. We also found no credible news reports or press releases announcing this move.
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Clark has become one of the biggest names in women’s basketball, so this announcement would have made headlines. We found none.
As for Clark wearing the red jersey, the image included in the viral thread is a screenshot of a Facebook post of what appears to be the photo from Canadian player Bridget Carleton’s player bio, but edited with Clark’s head.
(Source: Canada Basketball and Facebook post)
Clark, who had a record-breaking season playing for the University of Iowa and currently plays for the WNBA team Indiana Fever, has previously won gold medals as part of USA Basketball’s under-19 and under-16 women’s national teams. She was not selected for this year’s Team USA roster to compete at the Paris Summer Olympics, which begin July 26.
We rate the claim that Clark "has officially joined the Canadian women's Olympic team" False.
Our Sources
Email interview with Matthew Walker, Director of Communications at Canada Basketball, June 21, 2024
USA Basketball, "Caitlin Clark," March 28, 2024
Threads post (archived), June 19, 2024
Canada Basketball, "Homepage," accessed June 21, 2024
Canada Basketball, "Canada Basketball News," accessed June 21, 2024
Canada Basketball, "Bridget Carleton," accessed June 21, 2024
Facebook post, (archived), June 17, 2024
CBS News, "Caitlin Clark breaks 54-year-old record, becomes all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader," March 3, 2024
USA Today, "USA basketball Olympic women's team roster: Who made the cut for Paris Olympics," June 17, 2024
CBS News, "USA Basketball defends decision to leave Caitlin Clark off the 2024 Paris Olympics team," June 12, 2024
Sports Illustrated, "Kevin Durant Gave Thoughtful Quote on Caitlin Clark's Olympics Roster Omission," June 20, 2024
USA Basketball, "USA Basketball Women's Olympic Team," accessed June 21, 2024
YouTube, "Caitlin Clark discusses being left off USA Olympic Team," June 9, 2024
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No, Caitlin Clark didn’t join Canada’s Olympic team
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