Boxing history is full of Cinderella stories. At the Olympics Wednesday, a new chapter was written in the “Cindy story” — and it’s one that could yet end with a medal.
In the last 16 of the women’s 75 kg competition, Cindy Ngamba jumped for joy after her 3-2 victory over Canadian third seed Tammara Thibeault.
It will also be viewed by many in boxing as a success for Team GB, who have been nurturing Cameroon-born Ngamba’s considerable talents and wanted her in their own line-up. Her home has been Bolton, in the north of England, since her early teens.
However, the 25-year-old has so far been unable to attain a British passport due to issues with her paperwork. Consequently, she is representing the Refugee Olympic Team in Paris — five days ago, she was one of their flagbearers at the Opening Ceremony.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly newsletter is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
🤩 What a win!
— GB Boxing (@gbboxing) July 31, 2024
Cindy beats Canada's 2022 world champion, Tammara Thibeault via a 3:2 split decision.
Representing @RefugeesOlympic, she will now box for a medal in Sunday's middleweight quarter-final action. pic.twitter.com/XbF0U7otHq
Ngamba has had one of the most remarkable journeys of any athlete at these Games.
Along with her brother Kennet, she resettled in Bolton with their father having been forced to flee their African homeland. The siblings would regularly have to sign in at an immigration center in Manchester.
She started training at a local boxing gym when she was 15 and came out as gay three years later.
Her sexuality would later become a factor in determining her future. In 2019, immigration officials suddenly decided to send Ngamba and her brother to a detention center in London and they were at risk of deportation.
They ultimately avoided that fate. Ngamba told Sky Sports last year: “In Cameroon, it’s illegal to have any kind of sexuality instead of straight, because you get killed and you get put into prison and you get tortured. That was one of the reasons why I was given refugee status.”
Granted asylum to remain in the U.K., she has won three national titles in England and was welcomed into the GB Boxing camp in Sheffield as they attempted to secure her citizenship.
When that failed to come through in time, she targeted an Olympic quota place and in May, became the first refugee boxer to independently secure qualification.
Thibeault is a former world and Commonwealth champion but with a strong finish that saw her claim the third round on four of the five judges’ cards, Ngamba got the better of her. She goes through to face France’s Davina Michel in the last eight on Sunday.
It was a close call. Ngamba beat Thibeault 30-27 on one card and 29-28 on two cards, while Thibeault won on the other two cards in a split decision.
Earlier in the same middleweight class, trans man Hergie Bacyadan lost on his Olympic debut to Li Qian of China.