Australia’s Liz Cambage yesterday spoke about her feelings of relief after withdrawing from her country’s women’s basketball squad for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The 29-year-old on Friday pulled out of the Opals squad citing mental health issues ahead of the team’s departure from Las Vegas, where they have been completing their pre-Games preparations.
Cambage’s move came after Basketball Australia launched an investigation into an altercation involving the Las Vegas Aces center during a warmup game against Nigeria on Thursday.
Photo: AP
“This decision had been a few days in the making, but I’d been at breaking point for a month or so now,” Cambage said in a video posted on Instagram.
“As soon as I put out that little statement yesterday and made the final decision, I felt a world of anxiety and pressure, and heaviness I have been carrying, lift straight off me,” she said.
Cambage admitted there had been a clash during the game against Nigeria, but suggested that reporting of the incident was inaccurate.
“Things got heated in the Nigeria game,” Cambage said.
“There was a particular altercation and there were words exchanged, but I’m hearing things that aren’t true at all, flying around from people in Australia and America, which is crazy. Everything that happened and everything that was said is on film, so I know what happened. I do not appreciate the lies and the people constantly trying to tear me down,” she said.
Australia have medaled in five of the past six Olympic women’s basketball tournaments, but have never won gold and were knocked out in the quarter-finals in 2016.
The withdrawal of Cambage, who previously threatened to quit the team over a lack of racial diversity in Australian Olympic photo shoots, reduces their hopes of a first-ever gold medal considerably.
“Yesterday was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but it had been coming,” she said.
“I’ve been having breakdowns in the carpark at Wholefoods, nonstop panic attacks hyperventilating at the thought of going into one of the most precious situations, which is already in a bubble, with no fans, no friends. Mentally, I’m an escapist. If I have no escape from a situation, it gives me anxiety and I panic,” she said. “And there’s definitely no escape, except for leaving, once you get into Tokyo, and I would not want to do that to my team.”
On Friday, the Opal’s beat the US team 70-67 in a pre-Olympic exhibition game without Cambage on the court.
Breanna Stewart and her US Olympic teammates said they are not panicking, even though they have lost consecutive games for the first time in a decade. They earlier lost to a team of WNBA All-Stars.
“There’s a standard and the standard is winning and we haven’t gotten to that point yet,” said Stewart, who scored 17 points for the US. “It’s frustrating, it’s part of the game and part of the process. When we get to Tokyo and get to the Olympics that’s when it’s really, really crunch time. We’re continuing to elevate and get better every day. We’ll get to where we want to be.”
Additional reporting by AP
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
The Canterbury Crusaders edged the Waikato Chiefs 16-12 in an intense Super Rugby Pacific final battle in Christchurch yesterday to claim their 15th title in 30 years of the Southern Hemisphere competition. Hooker Codie Taylor scored a try and Rivez Reihana contributed 11 points from the kicking tee as the most dominant team in Super Rugby history extended their perfect home playoff record to 32 successive matches since 1998. The Chiefs, who were looking for a first title since 2013, scored first-half tries through George Dyer and Shaun Stevenson, but were unable to register a point after the break and fell to
RSS