Before focusing in solely on basketball, Caitlin Clark played a number of sports growing up—including tennis. Clark said that growing up, Serena Williams was her favorite athlete ever, and an overall inspiration to her as a young athlete.
"I loved Serena Williams," Clark said, via Elle. "Like she was probably my favorite athlete of all time. I just, you know, thought she was the greatest thing ever and then also I was a young girl being able to look up to that. I thought that was incredible.”
Unlike her idol, Clark did not go on to become a tennis star—and not because her ability was holding her back. Instead, Clark admitted she got kicked out of tennis class after finding the sport to be "too easy."
“I got kicked out of tennis class when I was like 10, so that didn’t last long,” Clark said with a laugh. “I got mad at the instructor because I thought it was too easy.”
Along with tennis and basketball, Clark also played softball, volleyball, golf, and soccer growing up, and even starred on her high school's soccer team before zoning in on basketball. Ultimately, Clark picked the right sport. She went on to have an incredible college basketball career at Iowa, becoming the NCAA D-I all-time scoring leader, and has already made an indelible impact on the WNBA with the Indiana Fever.
Clark will return to action for her second WNBA season on May 17, when the Fever kick off the season against the Chicago Sky.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Caitlin Clark Quit Another Sport She Found 'Too Easy' After Being Kicked Out of Class.
