Boxer Cindy Ngamba, who made history by becoming the first athlete competing as a refugee to clinch an Olympic medal, hopes her win inspired other refugees going through dark times to “aim high.”
“It’s going to end and there’s going to be a light at the end of the tunnel,” Ngamba said in Paris on Friday.
The 25-year-old originally from Cameroon offered hope for the Refugee Olympic Team that was created to call attention to the plight of refugees across the world.
Ngamba’s victory at the Paris Games comes after a fierce bout with French boxer Davina Michel in the women’s 75-kilogram quarterfinals in front of a passionate French crowd.
Ngamba, who screamed and pumped her fist when she won, scored a bronze medal.
She faced Atheyna Bylon, who ensured that Panama would get its fourth-ever Olympic medal with her own win shortly after.
“It means the world to me to have qualified for the Olympics and have come out on top with a medal,” she told the Associated Press. “I’m just one millions of the refugees out there. “
She was a flag bearer for the 37 athletes making up the biggest Refugee Olympic Team since the idea was born ahead of the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The International Olympic Committee created the team as a way for displaced athletes and migrants to participate fully in the Olympics without help from national federations.
Ngamba moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 11 and said she was granted refugee status in 2021 because she could have been imprisoned for being gay in Cameroon.
She has said boxing has been her escape from the chaos — it’s also lifted her up to the international stage.
She told reporters that she struggled when she first moved to the U.K., going from a bubbly kid in Cameroon to an introvert as she learned English and adapted to her new home.
While some of the athletes on the refugee team have already won Olympic medals for their countries in past Games, Ngamba was seen as the team’s best chance at medaling in Paris.
The success of Ngamba and other athletes on the refugee team comes at a time of record migration and as 100 million people around the world have been forcibly displaced from their homes.
The Refugee Olympic Team has nearly quadrupled in size since its debut.
The refugee team was among the first Olympic delegations to cruise along the Seine River in the opening ceremony.
She said that her win shows that through “all the obstacles and tragedy” refugees go through, “you can achieve anything. you can achieve so many things in life.”
“Through so many pathways that I’ve gone through in life, I hope every refugee all around the world can see my story.”
Additional sources • AP
