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Caitlin Clark supercharged the 32nd annual WIN for KC Women’s Sports Awards banquet, which is the nation's largest celebration of girls and women's sports.
"When we started seeing the attendance numbers tick, tick, tick, tick, tick — and now we're almost 4,000, maybe over 4000," WIN for KC Director Taylor Obersteadt said. "I think our previous record was 1,500, so that's when I knew the excitement was really there."
Clark — decked out in bright red, a nod to her beloved Super Bowl-bound Kansas City Chiefs — discussed a wide range of topics during a 20-minute conversation at the T-Mobile Center.
Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, Clark said her family came to Kansas City, where she had family, to catch a Chiefs game every year. She has fond memories of attending games with her cousins.
"I'm not a bandwagon fan," Clark said. "... You kind of grow up and cheer for who your parents cheer for."
She said her father, Brent, is a big Chiefs and Royals fans, because those were the closest professional franchises.
Clark attended the Chiefs' AFC Divisional win against the Houston Texans with Taylor Swift, who has been dating Travis Kelce for roughly 18 months.
"Taylor is obviously amazing," Clark said of the experience. "... She's a very kind, caring person."
Clark lauded Swift’s ability to bring people together in a joyful way and forget their troubles, even if only temporarily.
She also discussed playing soccer, which she thought might be her sport in college as a middle-schooler.
Clark gave up soccer when the spring high school season in Iowa conflicted with AAU basketball.
"I do miss it, but basketball turned out OK," joked Clark, who is the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Clark made the All-WNBA First Team in her first season with the Indiana Fever last year, leading the league in assists with a WNBA-record 337 and made three-pointers.
But she told the crowd, which included 350 Kansas City-area girls who won high school state championships in the last year, that it's also OK to fail "as long as you learn from it and bounce back."
Clark also discussed the role mental health plays in her preparation and reiterated her belief that "Kansas City would be a great spot for a (WNBA) team."
Addison Bjorn — a Park Hill South junior, who plays for the same AAU team Clark played for (the All Iowa Attack) — received the Children’s Mercy Kansas City Rising Star Award after helping the USA Basketball Junior National Team win the FIBA U17 Women's Basketball World Cup last summer.
She may be the closest thing to Clark in KC high school hoops at the moment.
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"She's a role model, somebody I always look up to," Bjorn said of Clark. "I think she carries herself amazingly. She does a lot of great things other than just put the ball in the basket, which I think is really rare and good."
More than just Caitlin Clark
So, what did Bjorn — a top-10 recruit in the 2026 class with future WNBA potential — take away from Clark's remarks?
"Just kind of keep doing me," Bjorn said. "Stay in my bubble, stay in my circle, and continue to have fun in the sport."
But the Women's Sports Awards were about more than Clark. It was a celebration of all female athletes.
That included Amber Clark-Robinson, a world champion flag football star and the head flag football coach at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth.
Clark-Robinson, who helped USA Football national team win the IFAF Flag World Cup in late August in Finland, received the Hallmark Cards Leadership Award, but she was equally impressed by the other honorees.
"I got teary eyed a couple of times watching a couple of stories," Clark-Robinson said. "I thought I was gonna cry during mine, and there were some other super-inspiring stories. I think it's a great thing for the community to see that there are so many game-changers in the area that they don't even know about right next door."
The other honorees included the KC Pink Warriors, who received the Lockton Courage Award; Susan True, who received the UMBFC Charitable Foundation Lifetime Sportswoman Award; Royals Director of Behavioral Science and Major League Mental Performance Melissa Lambert, who received the Kissick Construction Game Changer Award; and reigning NWSL MVP Temwa Chawinga, who received the Forvis Mazars Be Bold Award.
Clark-Robinson, who is originally from North Carolina, said there isn’t an awards banquet to honor female athletes of this scale back home, so she relished the day — with family flying in from around the country to celebrate her.
Sophie Cunningham — a Columbia, Missouri, native and Mizzou women’s basketball legend, who was recently traded from the Phoenix Mercury to Clark’s Fever — also enjoyed her first WIN for KC Women’s Sports Awards experience.
"But I’m not surprised by it," Cunningham said. “I think the more that you give us a voice and a platform and, honestly, if you put us on TV, people will watch. People want to watch women's sports."
Thousands certainly wanted to celebrate women’s sports Tuesday in Kansas City.
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