By: Zahra Bokhari

The AAU is honored to highlight two-time AAU Sullivan Award Winner and AAU Alumni Caitlin Clark for Women’s History Month. Famously regarded as one of the best collegiate players of all time, 23-year-old Caitlin Clark continues to raise the bar for women in sports.

Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa Clark began playing basketball at the age of 5. Due to the lack of girls’ leagues in her area, her father, Brent, placed her to compete in boys’ recreational leagues.

Aside from her interest in basketball, Clark also played volleyball, soccer, tennis, softball, and golf. From 2009 to 2016 she held an AAU membership and joined All Iowa Attack, an AAU basketball program. Clark attended Dowling Catholic High School where she played varsity basketball and focused more on crafting her talents on the court. Her talent was then soon recognized as she won Iowa Miss Basketball and McDonald’s All-American her senior year of high school.

NCAA Division I basketball programs had their eyes set on Clark as early as when she was in the seventh grade. Clark chose to attend Iowa where she entered her freshman season as their starting point guard. Her freshman year accomplishments include receiving Big Ten Freshman of the Year and WBCA Freshman of the Year awards, as well as becoming the first freshman to win the Dawn Staley Award.

Clark went on to become the first consecutive recipient of the Dawn Staley Award and eventually the first three-time winner. She was also a three-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award. In her junior season, Clark swept the major basketball honors for the year. The list included the Honda Sports and Wooden Awards, the AP, Naismith, and USBWA College Player of the Year honors, and the Wade Trophy.

At the end of her junior year, Clark was awarded the AAU Sullivan Award, which recognizes the top college or Olympic athlete in the United States. She also won the Best Female College Athlete ESPY Award and the Honda Cup. Heading into her senior year, she was named preseason Big Ten Player of the Year and earned unanimous AP preseason All-American honors.

At just 21 years old, Clark became the first two-time recipient of the AAU James E. Sullivan Award, which has been awarded for 95 years to the most outstanding athlete. She capped off her Iowa career by winning the Honda Cup, the Best Record-Breaking Performance ESPY Award, and the Best Female College Athlete ESPY Award.

Clark's impact on the University of Iowa was so significant that the university retired her jersey on February 2, 2025, less than a year after graduating.

The Indiana Fever selected Clark as the first overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft on April 15, 2024. As a rookie, she was selected to play in the WNBA All-Star Game and was named WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Clark’s popularity, commonly referred to as the “Caitlin Clark effect” brought a large rise in attendance and viewership to women’s basketball. Her final three NCAA games broke the women’s college basketball viewership record and her first season in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever continued to draw more attendance and viewership than the WNBA had seen in the past.

Time Magazine also highlighted Clark’s outstanding journey by naming her 2024’s Athlete of the Year and she was named Female Athlete of the Year by Associated Press.

In October 2023, the Caitlin Clark Foundation was formed as a nonprofit organization. The foundation's mission is to uplift and improve the lives of youth through education, nutrition, and sports. Clark’s endorsements and partnership deals include pledges of support through monetary donations to the foundation within the contract. For example, Gatorade is a large donor to the Clark Foundation.

Clark’s philanthropic work extends beyond the Caitlin Clark Foundation. She worked with the Women’s Sports Foundation to increase basketball opportunities for young girls and teamed up with Scholastic earlier this year (2025), to donate 22,000 books to under-resourced elementary and middle schools in Indiana and Iowa. Clark has also previously teamed up with “Team Up Against Hunger” to raise money for food pantries in Iowa.

Her impact has been so profound that the state of Iowa has declared February 22 as “Caitlin Clark Day”. She is well respected and loved in her respective communities due to the hard work and dedication she’s carried with her throughout her journey to making it big.

Caitlin Clark embodies the spirit of the AAU Sullivan Award and represents the values of an AAU alum. She is as trailblazing off the court as she is on it, and the AAU is honored to feature her as its first Women's History Month honoree of 2025.