Paris Olympics: D’Tigress will have adequate preparation — NBBF

• … 43 female athletes begin 2028 Olympics camping

The Nigeria women’s national basketball team, D’Tigress, will have adequate preparation ahead of the summer Olympic games in Paris, according to the head of the basketball federation in the country.

The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), the governing body for basketball in Nigeria, Musa Kida disclosed this while speaking in Abuja ahead of the federation’s board meeting yesterday.

D’Tigress secured qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in a qualifier in February.

The 2024 Olympic Games will be held in the French city of Paris between July and August 2024 and the NBBF boss said there were plans for three phases of camping for the Nigerian girls.

“There would be reparation camping in Nigeria to Ghana with the pool that we have within the country.

“The second camp will be in the US for the people who are playing in the US and the environments there. And then the last part of the camp which would be for the selected team basically.

“So we have three phases that we are looking at. And I think with that kind of preparation, we do hope that our performance will be more outstanding than the last time that we went to the Olympics,” he said.

D’Tigress have won the last four editions of FIBA Women’s AfroBasket championships, showing their dominance in the African continent.

Meanwhile, in a bid to qualify Nigeria for the Softball event at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, 43 female athletes from states across the country are in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital for a fifteen-day first phase camping with the second phase scheduled to start in July this year.

Baseball and softball will be  returning to the Olympics for the first time since the Beijing Games in 2008. Both sports have been added to the programme for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, along with lacrosse, squash, cricket and flag football, following a vote conducted by the International Olympic Committee in Mumbai, India last year.

Speaking on the camping, the acting Secretary General of the Nigeria Baseball and Softball Association (NBSA), Mr. Robert Onwunkwe Anthony, said they decided to start early preparations and groom the girls from an early age to ensure Nigeria makes it to the Olympics, stating that with the programme the future was bright for the sport.