For most athletes, the 2024 Olympic Games is the opportunity to compete for their country in the greatest sporting event on the planet: dressed in the colours of their nation; dreaming of being draped in their flag and celebrating atop a podium as their anthem rings out.
For one team, it’s a very different experience. The IOC Refugee Olympic team brings together athletes representing the more than 100 million people who are displaced globally. The team was created for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games to beam a message of hope and inclusion to sports fans and fellow refugees across the world. That year, the team consisted of just 10 – for 2024, it features 37 athletes hosted by 15 National Olympic Committees, competing across 12 sports.
Boxer Cindy Ngamba, originally from Cameroon, where her homosexuality is punishable with up to five years in prison, is one of them. She arrived in the UK at just 11 along with her 12-year-old brother Kennet, to join her dad and nine other siblings in Bolton, England. “My dad believed we could have a better life, a better future,” she says.
It was a tough transition; Ngamba was bullied at school, but sport provided respite. Always sporty, her first love was football, but she found her true calling at a youth club aged 15. “I was shy, quiet, introverted and I kept myself to myself,” she says. “When I found boxing, I was able to let my personality out. I felt more confident speaking to other people, standing up for myself, and it helped my mental health too. On down days, boxing was a way for me to relieve my stress, to have something to keep my mind busy.”
“When I found boxing, I was able to let my personality out. I felt more confident speaking to other people, standing up for myself, and it helped my mental health too”
After a couple of years, Ngamba’s talent was obvious for all to see – she has won British National Amateur Championship titles in three separate weight classes. GB Boxing approached her, but as a refugee, she wasn’t eligible. When they wrote to the Home Office requesting she be granted citizenship, the request was denied. But then Ngamba’s fortunes changed. “Amanda Coulson from England Boxing told me there was a boy in Scotland that was a refugee and he was able to join the refugee federation. After a couple of conversations with them, I was able to join as a scholarship holder.”
This moment was pivotal, and Ngamba sees it as a huge career highlight, “The refugee federation gave me the opportunity to achieve my dream,” she says. Her second highlight? “When I qualified for the Olympic Games – it still hasn’t hit me.” Ngamba was the first-ever boxer in the refugee team to qualify for the Games, and the first in any sport to earn a place by qualification, rather than selection. She also earned the honour of being one of the team’s two flag bearers at the opening ceremony.
Recently, she met her 36 teammates for the first time, as they gathered for a camp in Paris. Eritrean sport-shooter Luna Solomon made a real impact. “She just has a positive energy”, says Ngamba. “She went to the Tokyo Olympics, so she told me what to expect.” She also offered useful advice: “I can be a bit too serious, and she told me, ‘Relax, enjoy yourself, make the most out of it’ – she kept repeating that to me every day. In moments where I get a bit too serious, I can hear her voice in my head.”
“The refugee Olympic team is unique, because we all come from different countries, we speak different languages, have different backgrounds, have faced different obstacles but we love what we do, and we are grateful to be able to call ourselves a team”
Ngamba won her first Olympic match on Wednesday 31 July, putting her through to the quarter final. Each time she steps into the ring in Paris, she is doing it not just for her, but for displaced people everywhere. “I’m one of just 37 athletes given this opportunity to represent the millions of us out there all around the world. We will keep every refugee in mind as we compete”, she says. “The refugee Olympic team is unique, because we all come from different countries, we speak different languages, have different backgrounds, have faced different obstacles but we love what we do, and we are grateful to be able to call ourselves a team. Every one of us wants to be the best we can be, every athlete wants to win a medal. I want to win a gold medal – but most of all, I’m going to enjoy it.”
Laura Potter is a freelance editor, writer and interviewer whose work has appeared in The Observer Magazine, The Guardian’s Saturday magazine, The Times Magazine, Women’s Health and Men’s Health
