Caitlin Clark explains why she said goodbye to soccer and chose basketball

Caitlin Clark has become a household name when it comes to basketball after turning her stunning NCAA career into a stellar rookie campaign in the WNBA.

While many view it as a natural progression for the 22-year-old, it all could have been very different had she gone down a different path when she was younger.

Although Clark is gifted on the court, she was a multi-sport athlete growing up. As a result she had to make a choice, and although she loved to play soccer and was very good at it, she decided basketball was the sport for her.

"I grew up playing everything and I was super competitive, so my parents kind of just tossed me out there and wanted me to get my energy out whether it was soccer, softball, golf, track, I really did it all," Clark said at the Women's Leadership Summit ahead of playing at The Annika while sitting down with Annika Sorenstam.

"In high school, I played soccer and I was on varsity and I loved it. But my teammates would get mad because I would go and practice and workout and do basketball after school right before we had our soccer games and they couldn't believe that I was doing that.

"So I eventually had to give up soccer even though I loved it."

Clark excelled on the pitch as well

It likely doesn't come as a surprise that Clark was very gifted when on the soccer field.

She famously became the first freshman to make it to First-Team All-State thanks to scoring 26 goals in just six games.

Clark played in so few games because she was off winning a gold medal at the FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Argentina. Her former coach, and even her father, believe she would have made the same impact in the world of soccer as she has in basketball.

"When I got into high school, I kinda knew basketball was my future and I loved it and I wanted to practice," said Clark.

"I wanted to get better at it, I wanted to spend time working on my game and that's probably what set that apart from all the other sports I played.

"It was for fun - I was really competitive about it but I didn't take extra time out of my day and go and work on my game and be better."