Caitlin Clark Kickstarts 2026 Revenge Tour With Major Award Win

The women's basketball community has been clamoring to watch Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark compete in the FIBA Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament, which began on March 11 and concluded after Team USA beat Spain by a score of 84-70 on March 17.

This is because Clark hasn't appeared in a competitive game since July 15, which is when she suffered a groin injury that ultimately kept her sidelined for the rest of the Fever's 2025 WNBA season. While she has been 100% healthy for several months at this point, this tournament was her first opportunity to get full-speed, genuine 5x5 action.

Even if Clark looked rusty, fans would just been excited to see her back on the basketball court. But Clark showed no signs of rust and immediately looked like her vintage self. Her best game was the opener against Senegal, where she scored 17 points (including going 4 of 5 from three-point range) and added 12 assists in a dominant win.

While Clark never reached that many points or assists in another game, she still looked like the best player on the court for the majority of her minutes. And that's saying a lot, given that her teammates were among the best women's basketball players in the world.

Caitlin Clark Wins FIBA Women's World Cup MVP

On March 16, the FIBA Women's World Cup Tournament X account (@FIBAWWC) made a post prompting fans to vote for who they think is the MVP of the tournament.

The insane amount of votes that Clark, Paige Bueckers, and Angel Reese all received convinced many that bots were involved, which was frustrating for some fans. However, the bottom line was that the MVP verdict didn't mean anything.

Instead, the real tournament's MVP award was revealed on March 17. And Clark was deemed deserving of the award.

IT’S OFFICIAL. CAITLIN CLARK IS YOUR TISSOT MVP. 🌟#FIBAWWC x #WeOwnTheGame pic.twitter.com/QNONqdifSq
— FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWWC) March 18, 2026

Surely nobody was more frustrated about how her 2025 season fared than Clark. This is why she'll be on a revenge tour with the Fever next season, and her winning MVP of this tournament means that she's already on track to reassert herself as not only the sport's biggest star, but perhaps also the sport's very best player.

Then again, the WNBA league office and the players association still need to ratify a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before the season can commence. But as soon as they do, expect Clark to remind everybody that this first MVP award is just the start.