How Cindy Ngamba became an Olympic hero for the Refugee Team amid Britain’s culture war

That bronze medal may glint for decades, the sharp shine of reflected light piercing through photographic proof and videos for years and years: evidence of the Refugee Olympic Team’s first medal ever, evidence of Cindy Ngamba’s mesmeric feat in Paris.

The truth is that Ngamba did not need this hardware to cement her legend; that was secured the moment she won her opening bout at these Olympic Games. But the Cameroonian-born, Bolton-based fighter went beyond. And now there is no going back.

Ngamba’s story has been told in these pages over the course of the Paris Games, but the essence of the inspiration is this: Ngamba was born in Cameroon, where she was raised by her mother, before moving to Bolton at 11 years old to live with her father. She was subjected to bullying at school and went on to study criminology at Bolton University, all the while applying for British citizenship with her brother Kennet.

Not only did the UK Home Office reject numerous applications from the siblings, but in 2019, Cindy and Kennet were detained at an immigration office due to paperwork issues. They were sent to a detention centre in London, were held overnight, and were threatened with deportation back to Cameroon.

Among the numerous factors that made this a daunting prospect were Cameroon’s attitudes towards homosexuality: Ngamba, a gay woman, could have faced five years in prison – or worse. “During my cases, I tried to use my boxing, me going to school or college, but the Home Office did not want to hear any of it,” she recently recalled. “You could get put in prison or get killed and with me being gay. I could not get sent back.”

Over the past decade, since discovering boxing aged 15, Ngamba has found a different sort of refuge in gyms and with Team GB. While she does not represent Team GB, due to her lack of a British passport, she trains among their athletes and has sparred with world champions like Savannah Marshall and Lauren Price.

Her journey has seen her forge an impressive amateur record of 26-5, and a resume that will now forever include an Olympic bronze medal. Although the 25-year-old was unable to move into the gold-medal match in Paris, falling to Panama’s Atheyna Bylon on points on Thursday, she deserves a dense chapter in the history books – if not a whole book dedicated to her story.

Tom McNeill, a coach at Elite Boxing in Halliwell, told The Independent: “She was about 80-odd-kg [when she first came in], and obviously a female in the gym, so we put her with one of our amateur boxers who was pretty good, pretty slick, but lighter. So, we thought it would balance out the weight...

“Anyway, next minute, we look around and she’s just beating him up all around the mat! Our kid was a bit of a mover, and she was just punching his head in! It was really funny. But she’s a really good learner and listener. If you teach her something, she’ll practise until she can do it perfectly.

“But for me, [most impressive aspect is] the way she performs under pressure... Look at her at this Olympics. She’s got a lot more pressure on her than the other athletes. The way she thrives under it is unbelievable. Can you imagine?

“She’s fighting for more than just sport; she’s fighting for her life, she was nearly deported a few years ago. Hopefully she’ll get her papers sorted now she’s won a medal.”

Ngamba’s case raises debate as to whether the British system has failed her so far, which feels especially poignant on a week when the country has been afflicted by anti-immigration protests and riots. But Ngamba’s fight in and out of the ring has shown exactly what Britain should be opening its arms to.