On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports

(Hardback)

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A news-making and electrifying portrait of sports phenomenon Caitlin Clark, whose dramatic ascendance in college basketball and now in the WNBA has captured the attention of media and fans unlike any other female team-sport athlete in historyby award-winning USA TODAY columnist and television commentator Christine Brennan.

America has never seen an athlete quite like Caitlin Clark. Attracting record-shattering attendance and TV ratings, she has riveted the nation with her famous logo threes and thrilling passes and changed how fans across the country view womens sports. Drawing on dozens of extensive interviews and exclusive, behind-the-scenes reporting, veteran journalist Christine Brennan narrates Clarks riseincluding the formative experiences that led to her scoring more points than any woman or man in major college basketball historyand delivers fascinating new details about Clarks Olympic snub by USA Basketball, the safety concerns around her that led to charter flights for all players, the WNBAs lack of preparation for heightened national scrutiny, and troubling outbreaks of jealousy and resentment as a white player became the top story in a predominantly Black league.

The 2024 season was a watershed. Always taking the high road in the face of criticism, Clark proceeded to write herself into WNBA record books as one of the leagues most talented rookies ever. And her winning personaon full display whether surrounded by children begging for autographs or reporters hanging on her every wordmade Clark such a fan favorite that increasingly larger arenas needed to be found to accommodate the hordes who traveled hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of miles to watch her play.

Clark arrived as a sports and cultural icon a little more than fifty years after the passage of Title IX, the 1972 law that opened the floodgates for girls and women to play sports in America. On Her Game is a sports story, certainly, but its also the story of a nation falling in love with what it has created because of that lawmillions of new athletes, led by the magical Caitlin Clark.

Reviews

RivetingBrennan takes us behind the scenes with captivating in-depth reporting, revealing not only who Caitlin Clark is and why she is so good, but also why she is beloved by so many. This biography is a wonderful portrait of an athlete and a time in America, capturing in rich detail Clarks unprecedented rise to superstardom. Its a story about an athlete who appreciates every moment while breaking records, signing autographs, and living her dreams. In other words, its about the magic of sports.
Jackie MacMullan, formerly, Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated and columnist for The Boston Globe and ESPN

Long one of America's most accomplished and respected sportswriters, Christine Brennan has covered just about every sport. As part of that impressive body of work, she has consistently brought insightful attention to women's sports. So she brings to the Caitlin Clark Moment deep knowledge and perspective about the history that led to it. Caitlin Clarks story is already one of the biggest and most compelling in sports. On these pages, its a story well told.
Bob Costas, 29-time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster

In On Her Game, Christine Brennan exhibits her typically extraordinary insight into the often controversial and complicated issues arising in modern sports. All the while, she maintains a standard of journalistic professionalism and clarity that renders her analysis and reporting not only exceedingly thought-provoking and informative, but also engrossing.
Harry Edwards, Ph.D., professor emeritus at UC Berkeley

Christine Brennan is the right journalist, Caitlin Clark is the right topic, and this is the right time. For decades, Brennan has been at the forefront of what's happening in women's sports, and here's another example of her immersive research and clear writing. No one has a more valuable sense of time and place.
Hall of Fame Journalist Lesley Visser

Theres no better person than Christine Brennan, who has spent her life chronicling the great stories in American sports, to take us inside the uniquely complex and compelling story of Caitlin Clark.
Michael Wilbon, cohost of ESPNs Pardon the Interruption

Author Bio

Christine Brennanis an award-winning national sports columnist forUSA TODAY;a commentator for ABC, CNN, and PBS NewsHour; and the bestselling author ofInside Edge,named one of the top 100 sports books of all time bySports Illustrated. She has been selected as oneof the countrys top ten sports columnists multiple times by the Associated Press Sports Editors and has covered the last twenty-one Olympic Games, summer and winter.A trailblazer, she was the first woman sportswriter at TheMiami Herald, the first woman to cover Washingtons NFL team for The Washington Post, and the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media.