Boxer Cindy Ngamba becomes first athlete competing as a refugee to clinch an Olympic medal

VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — Boxer Cindy Ngamba made historical past on Sunday by changing into the primary athlete competing as a refugee to clinch an Olympic medal. The 25-year-old initially from Cameroon supplied hope for the Refugee Olympic Workforce that was created to name consideration to the plight of refugees internationally.

Ngamba’s victory on the Paris Video games comes after a fierce bout with French boxer Davina Michel within the girls’s 75-kilogram quarterfinals in entrance of a passionate French crowd.

Ngamba, who screamed and pumped her fist when she received, has scored not less than a bronze medal as she advances to the semifinals Friday evening. She’s going to face Atheyna Bylon, who ensured that Panama would get its fourth-ever Olympic medal along with her personal win shortly after Ngamba’s battle.

“It means the world to me to be the primary ever refugee to win a medal,” Ngamba advised reporters. “I need to say to all of the refugees around the globe … carry on working arduous, carry on believing in your self.”

She was a flag bearer for the 37 athletes making up the most important Refugee Olympic Workforce for the reason that concept was born forward of the 2016 Summer time Video games in Rio de Janeiro. The Worldwide Olympic Committee created the workforce as a manner for displaced athletes and migrants to take part totally within the Olympics with out assist from nationwide federations.

Ngamba moved to the UK on the age of 11 and mentioned she was granted refugee standing in 2021 as a result of she may have been imprisoned for being homosexual in Cameroon. She has mentioned boxing has been her escape from the chaos — it’s additionally lifted her as much as the worldwide stage.

She advised reporters Sunday that she struggled when she first moved to the U.Okay., going from a bubbly child in Cameroon to an introvert as she realized English and tailored to her new residence. She mentioned she discovered her residence in boxing and on the Olympic workforce.

“I had my household and my workforce by my facet on daily basis,” she mentioned. “The refugee workforce welcomed me with open arms.”

Ngamba, who upset former world champion Tammara Thibeault of Canada in her first bout, entered her Sunday match aggressively towards Michel, rapidly dodging the French boxer’s swipes. Michel acquired deafening cheers from French followers, whereas Ngamba mentioned she heard boos in North Paris Enviornment.

“I believe I solely listened to boos as I walked into the ring,” Ngamba mentioned, including that the spectators have been simply one other group of people that didn’t consider in her all through her journey to get the place she is in the present day.

Whereas among the athletes on the refugee workforce have already received Olympic medals for his or her international locations in previous Video games, Ngamba has been seen because the workforce’s finest likelihood at medaling in Paris.

The success of Ngamba and different athletes on the refugee workforce comes at a time of document migration and as 100 million individuals around the globe have been forcibly displaced from their houses. The Refugee Olympic Workforce has practically quadrupled in measurement since its debut.

The workforce is “an emblem of inclusion, of equality, of accomplishment for a big group around the globe of refugees and displaced individuals,” U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi advised the AP in an interview final week.

Grandi congratulated Ngamba, writing on X: “You do us all very, very proud! And now onward to gold.”

The refugee workforce was among the many first Olympic delegations to cruise alongside the Seine River within the opening ceremony final week.

Ngamba’s victory comes as girls’s boxing has drawn intense scrutiny in latest days as fighters Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan and Imane Khelif of Algeria confronted a cascade of on-line abuse, with feedback falsely describing them as transgender or males. Each boxers received their fights this weekend because the IOC backed each girls and warned towards turning the competitors right into a “witch hunt.”

Trying ahead to her subsequent match, Ngamba desires to maintain sending a message of hope to refugees all over the place, saying that whereas she’s obtained not less than a bronze medal locked down, she’s going for gold.

“Hopefully within the subsequent spherical, I’ll get the job finished — not hopefully. I’ll get it finished,” she mentioned with a smile.

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