A vanguard of star players have lifted the profile of the women's game, but none of them have commanded the national consciousness quite like Caitlin Clark, the ponytailed once-in-a-generation talent from the University of Iowa whose 6ft frame -modest for a basketball player - belies her outsize impact on American sport.
Clark, 22, became the all-time record scorer in major college basketball this year, breaking a 54-year-old record held by a man, Pete Maravich.
Her amazing season continued as she carried the Iowa Hawkeyes all the way to the NCAA final, repeatedly setting new TV ratings benchmarks along the way.
Even after the Hawkeyes were denied a storybook ending by South Carolina Gamecocks in Sunday's title game, despite Clark scoring 30 points, the Gamecocks head coach, Dawn Staley, said: "I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport and it's not going to stop here." It was the culmination of a transformative season for the game, with the TV numbers telling only half of the story.
The women's game became the subject of morning chatshows, with dissections of the stars, personalities and beefs across the women's game after years of it being ignored entirely.
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