No, Caitlin Clark didn’t join Canada’s Olympic team

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.