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Australian Liz Cambage abandons Tokyo, between mental health and physical altercations

The star of the Opals, the Australian women’s basketball team, said she could not compete with confidence at the highest level in Japan because she suffered from panic attacks, did not sleep or eat.

I was really worried about participating in the Olympics in a bubble.

A quote from:Liz Cambage

No family. No friends. No supporters. No support system outside of my team. It’s honestly terrifying to mesaid the Las Vegas Aces player, who holds the record for points in a single WNBA game of 53 in 2018.

It breaks my heart to announce that I am retiring from the Olympics, but I think it’s best for the Opals and for myself, she said, she who has revealed in the past to have suffered from mental health problems

Australia’s Olympic mission chief to Japan, Ian Chesterman, said he understood his decision and wished him a full recovery.

Liz has made a great contribution to the Australian Olympic team during two Olympic Games campaigns, he recalled.

The decision, however, comes just hours after revelations, obtained by ESPN and Athletic, indicating that Liz Cambage had had physical and verbal altercations during a pre-season game against Nigeria, in Las Vegas, earlier this week.

This incident allegedly prompted the Australian Basketball Federation to examine status de Cambage for the Olympics.

Earlier this year, Liz Cambage, born to a Nigerian father and Australian mother, briefly threatened to boycott the competition due to lack of racial diversity in promotional photos released by the Australian Olympic Committee.

The Committee then publicly admitted that she was right and promised that future photo ops would reflect the diversity of her athletes.

The 29-year-old won bronze with the Opals at the London 2012 Olympics. She is the second Australian basketball player to withdraw from the Games citing mental health issues, after fullback Ryan Broekhoff in June.

Without Cambage, Australia beat the United States 70-67 in the preseason game on Friday. Ezi Magbegor scored 17 points for the Australians. The Americans have not lost an Olympic tournament game since 1992.

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