The British-based boxer Cindy Ngamba has been tipped to become the first athlete to win a medal for the International Olympic Committee’s refugee team after qualifying for the Paris Olympics this summer.
Ngamba, 26, was born in Cameroon but moved to England 15 years ago. GB Boxing wanted to pick her for their Olympic squad, but were unable to because she does not have a British passport. Instead Ngamba qualified for the IOC refugee team by winning a tournament in Italy last month and was officially named among the 36 athletes to compete under its banner on Thursday. She is the first refugee athlete to make the Olympics boxing tournament, and the first in any sport to earn a place in the Games by qualification rather than selection.
“We had a little celebration in Olympic House when we learned about her qualification in Milan,” said the IOC president, Thomas Bach, in announcing the make up of the team for 2024. “Cindy has a lot of fans here.”
Ngamba is unable to return to Cameroon because she is homosexual, which remains a criminal offence in the country. She has been through school and university in the UK, and has a degree in criminology. She started her boxing career in Britain when she was 15. She joined a local gym in Bolton because she was being bullied about her accent. She has since won national amateur titles in three different weight categories. But she is still fighting to win British citizenship. GB Boxing even wrote to the Home Office on her behalf, but were unsuccessful.
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When she was 20, Ngamba was arrested after attending what she believed was going to be a routine signing-on process to notify the authorities about her whereabouts. “Imagine thinking you’re just going to sign then go back to your house to go about your day, and then you’re put in the back of a van with handcuffs on,” Ngamba told the BBC. “I got sent to London and when I was there I spoke with loads of females. Some told me they had been there for many months and years. Some were going to be sent back to their country the next day and I’m thinking: ‘Am I going to be sent back next?’”
On Thursday, Ngamba said: “It means the world to me to have qualified for the Olympics, and to be the first ever refugee boxer. I’ve always worked hard, even before the qualifier I was very disciplined and consistent in my training, I have no doubt that every refugee who has been selected is the same. We’re all just going to go out there and do our job. We’re all family, and we’re all going to go out there and support each other.” The IOC praised the support she has been given by GB Boxing in particular.
The 36 athletes on the 2024 Olympic Refugee team are originally from 11 different countries and will compete in 12 different sports. Ngamba is one of five who are based in the UK, along with Dorsa Yavarivafa and Matin Balsini, who were both born in Iran, Farzad Mansouri, from Afghanistan, and Ramiro Mora Romero, from Cuba. Balsini is a swimmer, Yavarifvafa will compete in badminton, and Mansouri in taekwondo, while Romero is a weightlifter.
“It will be the third Olympic Games for the team,” said the chef de mission, Masomah Ali Zada, “but the first where we have a girl, Cindy, who qualified for the Games by herself. I’m sure she can bring home a medal.”
The UNHCR’s high commissioner, Filippo Grandi, added: “Since the first Olympic refugee team walked into the Maracana Stadium at Rio in 2016, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has soared. There are more than 114 million displaced people globally and counting, that’s 50 million more people than at the end of 2016, which is astounding.
“The refugee Olympic team should remind us of the resilience, courage, and hopes of all those uprooted by war and persecution. They will have a cheer squad of millions, not just refugees but many others.”
