Since she first set foot in a boxing gym at age 15 and realized her passion for the sport, Cindy Ngamba has used boxing as an escape. Amidst the difficulties she has faced as an immigrant and refugee trying to obtain citizenship, and her experiences as a Black, LGBTQ+ woman, Ngamba has worked tirelessly to improve her boxing craft. At the Paris Olympics, her hard work and dedication finally paid off.
Ngamba advanced to the semifinals of the women’s middleweight Olympic boxing tournament by winning her quarterfinal on August 4, eventually losing to Panama’s Atheyna Bylon in the semifinals. Ngamba will go home with a bronze medal, marking both her first Olympic medal and the first-ever medal for the Refugee Olympic Team since its establishment in 2016.
Seeking Refuge in the United Kingdom
At age eleven, Ngamba and her family left her home country of Cameroon to escape civil conflict. When she was eighteen, she came out as gay, and since homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon, Ngamba knew she couldn't safely return there. Once she started finding success in boxing, she hoped that she'd be granted citizenship in the UK and fight for its national team.
While she was granted asylum in the UK in 2021 due to her sexuality, acquiring citizenship there has proven to be an extremely long and difficult process. She was arrested in 2019 after a routine appointment with the immigration office. “I think back to this moment and thank God every day because there are people back there who weren’t lucky to have the same outcome as me,” Ngamba told Eurosport. “People who have built their lives here but are forced to leave. God decided I wasn’t meant to be one of them and I’m just so grateful.” While she was released shortly after, she has to fill out paperwork every week to continue living in the UK.
Finding and Pursuing Her Passion
When she was fifteen, Ngamba joined a football team at a local youth club. One day after practice, she saw a group of young men coming out of a boxing gym and wandered inside. “All I could hear was ‘BOOM, BOOM!’ and it stank of sweat— I loved it! I just started smiling,” Ngamba said. She showed up at the boxing gym the next day, and while the coach mostly ignored her at first because she was a girl, she kept showing up and eventually he agreed to coach her. As the only young woman boxer in her club, Ngamba admits she felt lonely at times but feels lucky because the guys she practiced with supported her.
Progression and Persistence
Ngamba developed an unmatched passion for boxing that drove her to fully dedicate herself to it, and she quickly progressed in the sport. She has since become the British National Amateur Champion in three different weight categories, garnering the attention of Team Great Britain. Since she is not a British citizen, they cannot provide her with funding, but she has access to training partners and coaches affiliated with the team. To fund her training, Ngamba has worked as a cleaner, coach, and waitress, all of which she did while earning a degree in criminal justice from Bolton University.
Ngamba feels like the unique hardships that she navigates as a refugee make her a stronger person and boxer, and they are reflective of the struggles that so many refugees experience. “I don’t really dwell on the negatives, but if it comes to having to speak about it, I’m sure there are other people who’ve had the same life as me, that have gone through the same circumstances. That’s what makes them stronger compared to other people,” she told The Athletic.
Maintaining a Positive Attitude
Despite the constant adversity Ngamba experiences, she maintains a humble and hard-working personality that inspires the men and women she practices with on Team Great Britain. “She listens so well and when you teach her something she practices and practices until she can do it, she gets obsessed. She’s always had that presence,” Ngamba’s former coach Tom McNeill attests.
Ngamba wanted to compete for the UK in the Olympics and feels frustrated that the difficult process of obtaining citizenship has prevented her from doing so. When her coaches at Team Great Britain suggested she try out for the Refugee Olympic Team for this Olympic year, Ngamba felt hesitant at first but decided to pursue that option. She now feels happy to have made that decision. “It's an honour to represent refugees at the Olympics. I hope that all refugees, not only athletes, can see us and that we show them it could be them one day," she told reporters after her quarterfinal victory on Sunday.
Ngamba’s story proves that we as women athletes can thrive in the face of adversity. If we accept challenges and work hard in spite of them, we can do anything. We are so glad Ngamba chose to compete with the Refugee Olympic Team, and we want to congratulate her on her historic Olympic debut!
