Cindy Ngamba interview: First Refugee Olympic medallist on her journey and carrying the burden of history in Paris

On each occasion she was there as an equal, but hers is a groundbreaking story, a unique, historic first unmatched by anything that has gone before even in the rich tapestry of the Olympic Games.

For in winning a bronze medal in women’s boxing’s middleweight division, the 26-year-old from Cameroon became the first person to win a medal representing the Olympic Refugee Team.

It was a moment that shone a light on an often-overlooked element of society and showed the people like Ngamba, or even less fortunate than her, what is possible with hard work and a desire to never give in. The girl from poverty in central Africa who moved to the north of England for a better life and a better future had fulfilled that ambition and laid a path for others to follow.

“I knew that going into the Olympics was going to be a groundbreaking moment,” says Ngamba.

“To be the one to come away with a medal meant the world to me. It was a moment for myself and for all the refugees in the team and to show people all around the world that it doesn’t matter who you are, whether you are a refugee or not, you can achieve amazing things if you are given the opportunity and you work hard.”

It was by choice that Ngamba and her mother left Cameroon when she was aged just 11.

“In Cameroon my mum used to work, she’d have a job and lose it, have a job and lose it, she never had a permanent job,” she explains. “My dad and my sibling already lived in Bolton and my mum just thought we weren’t going to get much chance for an education or a career if we stayed in Cameroon so she felt we should move to Bolton to stay with our family.”

It wasn’t an easy transition for a young Cindy, and she struggled to fit in at school. Sport had been an outlet back home – “playing football with my brother or pushing the wheels of a car with a stick” – and it would be her saviour in England.

First it was through playing football at a local youth club, but then she discovered boxing.

“One day I saw loads of boys coming out of a boxing gym and I thought: ‘where are they coming from?’” Ngamba told The Yorkshire Post. “As I walked into the gym there were loads of boys in there sparring, punching the bag, shadow boxing. I remember thinking this is something I want to do. I was 15.”

Around that time she would see another black woman on television and be reassured that she was on the right path.

“I remember watching Nicola Adams at the London 2012 Olympics and thinking this girl is so fierce, her speed, everything about her is so amazing and I want to be like her,” said Ngamba. “When I started my coach, who is still by my side now, Dave Langhorn, was very old school.

“Me being the only female at the gym from the age of 15 up to 19 when I left, he was very hard on me, making sure I learned from scratch.

“I didn’t start competing until I was 18 and spent the first three years just training, learning how to move my feet, to keep my hands up and the co-ordination of boxing.”

The tough love approach from Langhorn helped. Given her background, Ngamba already had an inherent sense that you don’t get anywhere without hard work.

“I’ve always been dedicated and hard-working, always been the type of person where if you tell me I can’t do something I will try and do it, and even if I don’t do it at least I’ve given my all,” she says.

“My coach never gave me a compliment or said you did your best. Every time he’d just say you could have done this better, and that kept me on my toes, that every day was a learning day. That’s what I love about it. I like to challenge myself, to push myself to the limit to see how far I can go.”

There have been countless challenges, like being arrested and almost deported back to Cameroon. She cannot return there because of her sexuality: homosexuality is illegal in her country.

But numerous examples of her overcoming adversity, like getting a degree in criminology from the University of Bolton.

In the ring she made huge strides. Within a year of first competing she had won the English ABA’s, earning a shot at the GB Boxing programme, but because she wasn’t a British citizen, couldn’t join the academy in Sheffield. She won the ABA’s again in early 2022 and now with refugee status, was taken on as a training partner.

“GB Boxing welcomed me with open arms, all the coaches, all the staff members,” says Ngamba, who is based in the city five days a week for training. “They treat me as Cindy, they don’t treat me like a refugee or that I’m different to anybody else.”

In Paris she says she was representing two teams, GB Boxing and the Olympic Refugee Team, who were being recognised for only the third time at a Games.

“We all gathered before the Olympics, 37 of us, some from Canada, from Germany, from America, from as close as Birmingham,” she says.

“That’s the beauty of the Olympic Refugee Team. Each one of us is one of millions; there are millions around the world who all have stories, we all have barriers that we have had to overcome.

“The one thing that brought us all together was we had the same goal, the same aim to represent the Refugee team and shine a light on refugees all around the world to show that we are here and hopefully motivate the next generation of refugees that are going through so much hardship, that anything is possible.”

That is quite the burden to shoulder.

“100 per cent it is, and I felt the weight,” she responds. “I understood there is an awareness from people about refugees, that we’re put on the side, we’re looked at differently. For me it was a case of I’m going to the Olympics to do what I want to do for myself but at the same time I’m representing more than just myself, I’m representing the refugee team, I’m representing GB Boxing, I’m representing Britain, I’m representing the next generation. That gave me peace of mind.”

Standing on the podium, an Olympic medal around her neck, people chanting her name at such a historic moment, left her speechless. “It was more important that I represented the Refugee team because it made people pay more attention,” she says.

Ngamba could fight on to LA 2028 and represent refugees again. Or she could continue the fight for British citizenship and represent Great Britain. Or she could turn professional. Whatever she does next, Cindy Ngamba has written a unique piece of Olympic history.