Her name is Cindy Ngamba and — despite losing in the semifinal bout of the women’s 75-kilogram boxing competition — she is the first ever medalist for the Olympic refugee team.
Going up against Panama’s Atheyna Bylon, Ngamba dropped the first round to the tall southpaw on all five scorecards despite keeping her left foot mostly on the outside of Bylon’s right — a common battle for prime position between opponents with opposing dominant hands. Ngamba came back swinging in the second, earning four of the five judges’ votes.
Bylon regained the edge in the third and final round, but the pendulum swung in Ngamba’s favor when the referee deducted a point from Bylon for persistent holding. Still, Bylon scrappily secured the chance to fight for a gold medal in the split call.
“Just the wrong decision in my eyes. Those type of mistakes, in the judges hands, in my opinion, are life-changing,” NBC commentator and American boxer Mikaela Mayer said. “There’s no going back, there’s no reversing that decision, but that was the wrong decision.”
Bylon fights China’s Qian Li on Saturday at Roland-Garros for Panama’s first medal of the Paris Games, while Ngamba secures bronze in the women’s 75-kilogram division. The Olympics do not hold specific bronze medal bouts in boxing, so Ngamba was to receive a medal win or lose in the semis.
The Refugee Olympic Team is incredibly proud of Cindy Ngamba, the first EOR athlete and the first-ever refugee medallist at the Olympics.
This bronze medal is a victory #ForThe100Million displaced people worldwide. Today, we are speechless.
Cindy did it. Refugees did it! 🫶… pic.twitter.com/Nu0ZriEu3J
— Refugee Olympic Team (@RefugeesOlympic) August 8, 2024
Still, her name — her full name — is Cindy Winner Djankeu Ngamba, and her fortitude has long persisted outside the boxing ring.
The 25-year-old boxer moved from Cameroon to Bolton, a town in Greater Manchester, England, when she was 11 because Ngamba is gay and cannot return home, where homosexuality is outlawed and she could be imprisoned. She trains with Great Britain boxing and fights under the refugee flag, which she was the flag bearer for along with taekwondo athlete Yahya Al Ghotany in the Paris Games’ opening ceremony.
It is Ngamba’s first time competing under the refugee flag after becoming the first-ever refugee boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games. She was introduced to the International Olympic Committee’s refugee program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The refugee team, created in 2015, debuted at the 2016 Rio Games. In Paris, the team is 37 strong.
Ngamba, though she’s lived and trained in Great Britain for nearly 14 years, has repeatedly been denied British citizenship despite claiming three national titles in separate weight classes and receiving support from GB Boxing, the sport’s governing body, in her applications to the Home Office.
“I want to say to all the refugees all around the world and refugees that are not athletes and mainly humans around the world that you have to keep on working hard, keep on believing in yourself,” Ngamba said after her quarterfinal bout victory. “You can achieve whatever you put your mind to.”
Required reading
(Photo: Richard Pelham / Getty Images)