Cindy Namba, the refugee athlete who struck the Boxing Qualifying Championship and will experience an emotional moment in Paris

In December 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that 11 refugee athletes would receive scholarships to prepare, in their respective host countries, to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. One of the athletes who at that time became part of the program was boxer Cindy Namba, who has just made history.

The Refugee Athlete Olympic Team (EOR) participated for the first time with 10 athletes in the Rio 2016 Games, there were 29 in Tokyo 2020 and the number is expected to increase in Paris, where Ngamba won a ticket in the Olympic Qualifying Games in Busto Arsizio, Italy. Thus, she became the first refugee boxer to participate in the Olympic Games when she won the place in competition (in Tokyo there were two representatives, but by invitation).

The knockout victory against Kazakh Valentina Khalzova in the quarterfinals of the 75-kilo category allowed Ngamba to secure a place for Paris 2024. “I want to thank God, the British boxing team and the refugee team. Without them, I wouldn’t be anywhere,” she said to Olympics: “It’s emotional. If it weren’t for the Refugee Team, I would have turned professional or embarked on a different journey. They stayed with me and welcomed me like a big family. They love me, care for me and support me at all times. I want to thank the refugee team for everything they have done for me.”

“The reason I am a refugee is because of my sexuality”

Cindy grew up in Cameroon with her mother and brother, Kennet; at the age of 11, they both traveled to Great Britain to live with their father and the language was one of the major complications. “I started school in the eighth grade, but my English wasn’t very good and I was being bullied. I was a sad girl who tried to carry each day as it came, but it was hard. Mostly because I was without my mother. I was wondering why God was doing this to me. Why are all these people harassing me because of the way I talk?” , said the boxer in a talk with Refugees’ Voice, at Eurosport.

“I didn’t know things like deodorant, so I smelled bad in class and the children made fun of me,” she recalled of those difficult days, Cindy, who at school met the two people who would start opening the door to sports: “I had two physical education teachers, Mrs. Park and Mrs. Schofield, who were like my mother figures and would buy me the spray. Partly thanks to them, physical education was my favorite subject. I had always been an athlete, but they motivated me to do well. I became a sports leader and played every sport I could.”

Cindy’s passion in Cameroon was soccer and she came to Great Britain with that idea of being a soccer player, until she was 15 she crossed paths with the sport that would allow her, a decade later, to become an Olympian: “One day, when I was leaving soccer training, I saw a lot of boys leaving a room. All I heard was boom, boom. I came in, saw guys hitting each other on the head and I said, ‘This is great.’” When she started taking her first blows, women’s boxing was just beginning to take its first steps in the Olympic world (debut was in London 2012) and she acknowledged: “At that time, I think even my coach (Dave Langhorn) didn’t believe in women’s boxing. For almost three years, all I did was jump, do push-ups and squat back-to-back.”

Another of the hard times that the national champion had to go through in three different categories was in 2019, when she was about to be deported. “It was one of the scariest experiences of my life. When we moved to the UK, Kennet and I would visit the Manchester immigration office once a week to sign papers. Once they separated us and I was left alone in a room with a woman and two police officers. They put handcuffs on me, put me in the back of the van and took me to London. At the time I didn’t know where I was going or even that it was a detention camp. It looked like a prison. The next morning, they let me call my brother and a few hours later, a woman told me I could go. I think it was my uncle who gave them enough information to prove that we could stay here. They gave me a train ticket and I met my brother in Manchester. I think about that every day,” she told Refugees’ Voice, reflecting: “Two years ago I was granted refugee status. In my country it’s illegal to be gay, so if they returned me, they could have jailed me. I am thankful for being protected and being able to stay in the UK. It’s sad and shocking to think that a country can judge someone based on their sexuality. It’s not just happening in Cameroon, but in many other countries where people’s lives are at risk just because they’re homosexuals.”

Although at one time she was embarrassed when they called her a refugee, today Cindy says it gave her an opportunity to change her life. “Many refugees around the world have a lot of potential, but they don’t yet have the doors open to them. It’s a big family, all over the world,” she said after the Olympic Qualifying in Italy and said: “My goal is to get a gold medal, or any medal. All I have to do is work hard, mind my business, keep my mind on my work, and I’ll do it.” Paris will be special, not only because of boxing, but because her mother, whom she left at the age of 11 to go to Great Britain and who could never see her boxing personally, lives in the French capital.

The Busto Arsizio Olympic Qualifying Championship awarded 49 places for the Olympic Games

The first of the tournaments that will close the qualification to Paris 2024 gave way to 28 men and 21 women. The last chance will be in May, at the Olympic Qualifying Championships in Bangkok.

Paris 2024 will have seven men’s and six women’s categories, so each country could have a maximum of 13 boxers. Australia is the highest-ranked country with a total of 12, Brazil has 10 and then there are Uzbekistan (9), France (8), Italy (8) and the United States (6). For its part, Cuba, which topped the medal table in Tokyo, currently has only four boxers qualified. Great Britain, Colombia, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama are also insured.