WNBA Rookie' Caitlin Clark wins 2024 TIME Athlete of the Year: List of TIME magazine’s past winners.

WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark has yet another major honor on her résumé: Time magazine's 2024 Athlete of the Year.

With her signature long-range 3-point shots and her amazing passing skills, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft led the Indiana Fever to their first playoff berth since 2016, while at the same time ushering in a new level of exposure and fandom for the league.

All this after leading the University of Iowa to a 34-5 record and the championship game of the women's NCAA Tournament while breaking the all-time Division I career scoring record.

With just a short break between the end of the college basketball season and the start of her pro career, Clark continued to shine as a rookie in the WNBA.

Photograph by Cass Bird for TIME

She set a rookie record for most 3-pointers made in a season, while also establishing WNBA marks for assists in a single game and in a season.

As Clark was taking the league by storm, overall attendance increased by 48% over last year to its highest level in more than two decades. The Fever broke the WNBA record for home attendance, and their regular-season finale against the Washington Mystics drew 20,711 fans, the most ever to witness a WNBA game.

In the interview with Time, Clark took pride in her role in the league's unprecedented growth: "I've been able to captivate so many people that have never watched women's sports, let alone women's basketball, and turn them into fans."

TIME Athlete of the Year past winners

Popular magazine TIME is well-known for the iconic Person of the Year award, which has been handed out every year since 1927. In a near 100-year history it has been won by the likes of Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr. and Elon Musk.

However the Athlete of the Year award is considerably younger, with the first award given out in 2019. Messi becomes the first non-American to win the prize.

2019 - United States Women's National Team (soccer)

2020 - LeBron James

2021 - Simone Biles

2022 - Aaron Judge

2023 - Lionel Messi

2024 - Caitlin Clark

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