Caitlin Clark nominated for 3 ESPY awards, including best athlete in women’s sports

Caitlin Clark’s playing days as a Hawkeye athlete may be over, but she isn’t done earning recognition for her illustrious college career.

Clark, now a rookie with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, was announced Wednesday as a nominee for three separate ESPY awards.

The West Des Moines native is up for the following honors:

Best athlete, women’s sports
Best record-breaking performance (becoming the NCAA all-time scoring leader)

Best college athlete, women’s sports

Clark led the Hawkeyes to a second consecutive appearance in the national title game and has already won awards for her accomplishments as a senior.

The ESPYS will be presented at 7 p.m. CT, Thursday, July 11 and will air on ABC.

Voting is open now through 4 p.m. July 11. You can vote here.

A full list of ESPY nominees can be seen here.

WWE star Bianca Belair invites Caitlin Clark to compete in 2025 Royal Rumble

Bianca Belair challenged the Indiana Fever ace to join the wrestling theater

Caitlin Clark

WWE star Bianca Belair celebrated Caitlin Clark for bringing new attention to women’s basketball before challenging her to join Royal Rumble in 2025 in a mouth-watering crossover event.

Women’s sports continue to explode in popularity through the 2020s with tennis, soccer, basketball and wrestling all enjoying newfound attention and celebration as fans begin to realise it can be just as entertaining as the men’s games.

Caitlin Clark shrugs off Fever coach Christie Sides before final shotParker Johnson

Part of that is thanks to Clark, who is arguably the most popular female athlete in the world right now after smashing the NCAA’s points record whilst she continues to post strong stats in the WNBA in her rookie season.

She also carries such a demand to be viewed that the Indiana Fever have resorted to using the Gainbridge FieldHouse for their games, the venue, which is home to the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, showing how insane the buzz around her is.

So, it’s in the wake of that explosion that has led to Belair to celebrate the 22-year-old and suggest an ambitious, but audacious, cross over of basketball and wrestling in 2025.

“It’s so funny because everybody’s already asking that (Caitlin Clark being at one of WWE’s Premium Live Events in Indianapolis). Even before the press conference, they’re bringing up Caitlin Clark,” Belair told ComicBook Nation. “Listen, I love what’s happening with the WNBA.

“I love that women are getting more spotlight and more attention. I’ve always said, you know, we don’t need to do anything different. We just need the opportunities; we need the media coverage and the WNBA is doing that.”

“I feel like WWE, we’ve done a lot of unprecedented things when it comes to women, whether it’s women main eventing WrestleManias, main eventing on a weekly basis at Raws or SmackDowns or PLEs so, it would be really cool for the two worlds to combine and have an even bigger impact for women so Caitlin Clark, if you’re watching, come on. Come in the Royal Rumble.

“You can be one of the 30 participants. That’s what’s exciting about the Royal Rumble, right? You never know what’s gonna happen. It could be the past, the present, the future or just someone that you don’t expect so, you might see Caitlin Clark, 2025 Royal Rumble right here in Indianapolis.”

When does Caitlin Clark play next?

Clark will next step onto a basketball court on Thursday, June 27 when she heads to the Climate Pledge Arena to take on the 10-6 (.625) Seattle Storm.

The game is scheduled to take place at 20:30 ET/17:30 PT in Washington as Clark looks to shoot the Fever to their eighth win of the season (.389).