Boxing champion Cindy Ngamba clinched a historic win on Sunday, making her the first athlete to win an Olympic medal for the Refugee Olympic team.
Ngamba defeated Davina Michel of France in the 75kg category and now advances to the boxing semifinals. Even athletes that lose in the semifinals are guaranteed a bronze medal, securing her name in the history books. But Ngamba’s ambition reaches farther. “I hope I can change the medal in my next fight,” Ngamba said. “It means the world to me.”
The 25-year-old athlete is originally from Cameroon, where same-sex conduct is criminalized. She was given refugee status because of her sexuality. “It’s illegal to be gay in my country, so if I was sent back, I could have been imprisoned,” Ngamba previously said. She currently lives in the United Kingdom, where she moved to at age 11.
There are 117.3 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Refugee Olympic Team is relatively new, debuting in Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games. The team “sends a great signal about what an enrichment refugees are for our Olympic community and for society at large,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has said. The Paris 2024 team is the largest yet with 37 athletes competing in 12 sports including judo, taekwondo, and breaking.
Some athletes on the Refugee Olympic Team have won medals while representing their home country during previous Olympic Games, but Ngamba is the first to do so for the Refugee Olympic Team.
She will next face Panama’s Atheyna Bylon in her next match on Aug. 8.
To refugees across the globe, Ngamba said: “Keep on believing in yourself, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.”
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