How Caitlin Clark Combats the Pressure of Constantly Being in the WNBA's Spotlight
There's no question that the biggest WNBA spotlight has been placed on Caitlin Clark ever since she was drafted No. 1 in 2024. The Fever star appears to handle all the popularity with grace.
How does she combat the pressure constantly placed on her, especially when she's on the court? Clark opened up about her mental health journey when appearing on her teammate Aliyah Boston and Candace Parker's podcast Post Moves this week.
"I try to distance myself from everything online the best I can," Clark started. "... But when I get into the heat of the season, I'm very locked in on what we need to do and what our team's about and our locker room, and whatever that is. I do a lot of like meditation, a lot of breathing work, I journal a lot. I have a sports psychologist that I work with. Doing everything I can to make sure my mind's in the right place because you have all the physical skills, that's what you're in the league. ... Just making sure your mind is right, and sometimes that's the harder part of it.
"I always tell people this-I feel like shooting is way more mental. First of all, being in good shape, like you can't be exhausted or your shooting fundamentals are going to go to crap. And, just your belief that you're going to make the shot. I try to work on my mind as much as I can. I feel like a lot of people don't probably understand how taxing a lot of the pressure and the spotlight can be sometimes. I wouldn't change that for anything. I love it, and I'm very blessed and I'm very thankful that it brought me a lot of amazing things."
Caitlin on how important the mental is:
- allison (@_girltalk) May 20, 2026
"I try to distance myself from everything online the best I can… Ppl don't understand how taxing the spotlight/pressure can be, but I would never change it for anything, it brought me a lot of amazing things, like AB."
I love these two sm pic.twitter.com/f5hxWX67mr
What a really thoughtful response from Clark. She's definitely putting in the work on her mental health throughout the season so the fame and pressure doesn't weigh her down and impact her basketball performances. It probably helps that she stays offline during the season to not listen to the chatter about her as it would surely get taxing. Some athletes struggle with that balance of distancing themselves from the trolls online, but Clark has a good remedy down.
MORE SI: What It Means for Caitlin Clark to Be Named the 2026 Indy 500 Grand Marshal
So far this season, the work seems to be paying off as Clark's been her impressive self on the court. Through just four games, Clark's posted at least 20 points in each contest and even scored 32 points and 10 assists in one game.
Clark's focus remains on wanting to win a WNBA title in just her third season in the league. She only played in 13 games last season because of injuries, so hopefully she'll stay physically and mentally healthy in 2026.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Caitlin Clark Combats the Pressure of Constantly Being in the WNBA's Spotlight.
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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 3:46 PM.