Who are Liz Cambage's parents? Ethnicity and nationality explored amid allegiance shift to Nigerian team

Controversial women's basketball star Liz Cambage made headlines recently for expressing her interest to play for Nigeria in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Cambage, who has represented Australia so far, was born to a Nigerian father and an Australian mother.

According to her WNBL profile, Cambage was born on Aug. 18, 19991, in London, England. Her mother is Julia Cambage while her father's name remains unknown. Her parents separated when she was just three months old, with Julia going back home to Australia.

Liz was raised by her mother in Melbourne, where she was bullied as a child for her unusual height. She began playing basketball at the age of 10 to cope with bullying and to make friends. She turned professional in 2007 for the Dandenong Rangers.

In an interview with Bleacher Report's Taylor Rooks, Liz Cambage opened up about her controversial exit from the Australian team ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Cambage was removed by the Opals after she allegedly made racist remarks toward members of the Nigerian national team during a practice game.

The 31-year-old star continued to refute the reports and even went further by saying that she was planning to switch allegiance. She's looking into possibly representing Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"We're filing for me to leave the Australian national team so I can represent Nigeria," Cambage said. "I've been in cahoots. I've been talking with them since all of this happened. This is what I mean. People don't know the truth."

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Nigeria's Promise Amukamara reacts to Liz Cambage's claims

Liz Cambage playing for Australia in 2018

Despite Liz Cambage's plan to switch from Australia to Nigeria for next year's Paris Olympics, D'Tigress' star Promise Amukamara refutes her claims. Amukamara tweeted that Cambage was indeed speaking to Otis Hughley Jr., but the coach left the team last year.

Nigeria's current coach is Rena Wakama, who became the first woman head coach to win the Afrobasket in history. Amukamara also called out Cambage for telling lies about what happened during their practice game.

"I'm sorry but this is false," Amukamara wrote. "She called us monkeys and told us to go back to our country. Yes, she said that. Literally everyone from both teams have the same story BUT her, so y'all do the math.

"And the only person she has been in 'cahoots' with was the former coach of our national team, and he's no longer the coach, so there's that."

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