Nigeria’s senior women’s national basketball team, D’Tigress, have commenced a 37-day training camp in Chicago, United States, ahead of the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup scheduled to take place in Berlin, Germany, from September 4 to 13.
The training camp will span three countries – the United States, China and Spain – with the team expected to play a series of friendly matches against China, Spain, Belgium, Mali and Puerto Rico.
The players and coaching staff have already begun preparations in Chicago and are in high spirits as they gear up for the global showpiece.
D’Tigress will remain in Chicago from July 29 to August 2 before travelling to China, where they are scheduled to face the Chinese senior women’s national team in three friendly games between August 4 and 12.
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The team will then move to Tenerife, Spain, where they will take on Spain and Belgium between August 15 and 24. Still in Spain, D’Tigress will travel to Zaragoza to face Mali and Puerto Rico from August 25 to September 3.
Earlier in April, D’Tigress held a training camp during which they faced three WNBA franchises – the Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx and Indiana Fever – as part of their preparations.
Nigeria have been drawn in Group B of the World Cup alongside Hungary, South Korea and France. D’Tigress will open their campaign against South Korea on September 4, face Hungary the following day, and conclude their group-stage fixtures against France on September 7.
The top team in each group will qualify automatically for the quarter-finals, while the teams that finish second and third will advance to the qualification round, where they will compete for the remaining quarter-final spots.
D’Tigress missed the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup despite qualifying for the competition, following funding challenges.
The six-time African champions will be aiming to match or surpass their best-ever World Cup performance, achieved in 2018, when they reached the quarter-finals. Their campaign ended with a 71–40 defeat to eventual champions, the United States.
Nigeria eventually finished eighth after losing their classification games to France, 84–62, and Canada, 73–72.
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