Paris 2024 Olympics: Cindy Ngamba wins first refugee medal

Boxer Cindy Ngamba made history Sunday by becoming the first athlete competing as a refugee to win an Olympic medal. The 25-year-old from Cameroon has given hope to the Refugee Olympic Team, which was created to draw attention to the plight of refugees around the world.

Cindy Ngamba 's victory at the Paris Games comes after a fierce fight against French boxer Davina Michel in the quarter-finals of the 75 kilos in front of a passionate French crowd.

Cindy Ngamba, who screamed and pumped her fists in her victory, secured at least a bronze medal by advancing to the semifinals Friday night. She will face Atheyna Bylon , who secured Panama's fourth Olympic medal with her victory shortly after.

“It means a lot to me to be the first refugee to win a medal ,” Cindy Ngamba told reporters. “I want to say to all refugees around the world: keep working hard, keep believing in yourself.”

Homosexuality

She was the flag bearer for the 37 athletes who made up the largest refugee Olympic team since the idea was floated ahead of the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. The International Olympic Committee created the team to allow displaced and migrant athletes to fully participate in the Olympic Games without the help of national federations.

Cindy Ngamba moved to the UK when she was 11 and said she was granted refugee status in 2021 because she could have been imprisoned in Cameroon for being gay . She said boxing gave her an escape from the chaos and also propelled her onto the international stage.

She told reporters on Sunday that she struggled when she first settled in the UK, going from a bubbly child in Cameroon to an introvert as she learned English and adapted to her new country. She found her place in boxing and on the Olympic team. “ I had my family and my team by my side every day ,” she said. “The refugee team welcomed me with open arms.”

Cindy Ngamba, who beat former Canadian world champion Tammara Thibeault in her first fight, started her Sunday fight aggressively against Davina Michel, quickly dodging the French boxer's punches. Michel received deafening cheers from the French fans, while Ngamba said she heard boos inside the North Paris Arena.

Olympic medal

“I think all I heard was boos when I stepped into the ring ,” Ngamba said, adding that the spectators were just another group of people who didn’t believe in her throughout her journey to get to where she is today.

While some of the refugee team's athletes have already won Olympic medals for their countries at previous Games, Cindy Ngamba is considered the team's best chance to win a medal in Paris.

The success of the Cameroonian and other athletes on the refugee team comes at a time when migration is at a record high and 100 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes. The Refugee Olympic Team has nearly quadrupled in size since its inception.

The team is "a symbol of inclusion, of equality, of achievement for a large community of refugees and displaced people around the world ," Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in an interview with the AP last week.

Online insults

Filippo Grandi congratulated Cindy Ngamba, writing on X: "You make us all very, very proud! And now, on to the gold." The refugee team was one of the first Olympic delegations to sail on the Seine during the opening ceremony last week.

Cindy Ngamba's victory comes as women's boxing has been in the spotlight in recent days, with boxers Lin Yu-ting (Taiwan) and Imane Khelif (Algeria) facing a barrage of online abuse , with comments falsely describing them as transgender or male. Both boxers won their bouts at the weekend, with the IOC giving them its support and warning against turning the competition into a "witch hunt" .

As she awaits her next match, Cindy Ngamba wants to continue sending a message of hope to refugees around the world, saying that while she has at least a bronze medal in her pocket, she is aiming for gold. "I hope in the next round I will achieve it - I don't hope. I will ," she said with a smile.