EOC Refugee boxer Cindy Ngamba: “If I was able to overcome those times then I can overcome any situation”

Cindy Ngamba has high hopes for the boxing competition at the European Games 2023 in Poland.

The upcoming fights will be hard, they will be bruising, but she’s faced tougher challenges before.

Ngamba left Cameroon as an 11-year-old and arrived in the UK in search of a better life. Since then, many of the stigmas and challenges that are commonplace for refugees have made her journey difficult but the experiences she has lived through have also given her the belief that she can achieve anything she sets her mind to.

“I just look at the time when I had a hard time in life, my papers, coming to the UK, the language barrier and the tough times that I faced when I first came to the UK,” she says in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com at the European Games in Poland.

“And I think about if I was able to overcome those times then I can overcome any situation and anyone in the world can overcome anything.

“All you need to do is work hard, and when you work hard, everything will come together.”

Cindy Ngamba: “I feel at home now” seeing so many females in boxing

Hard work has been at the centre of Ngamba’s rise to the upper echelons of amateur boxing. Now a three-time national champion - in three different weight classes - she stands alongside over a hundred other women boxers hoping to punch their tickets to the next Olympics at the European Games.

It stands in stark contrast to when Ngamba was the only female boxer at her club, and the progression towards equality in boxing has changed the way she thinks about her sport.

“When I first started there were not a lot of females in boxing,” she says of a sport that saw the first female boxers compete at London 2012.

“So now I can see that every female is different, different age, different experiences, different styles. I can look at some of the females and I feel at home now compared to when I was with the boys. I didn’t know where I stood but now that I’m in a sport where I can see lots of females that have experience, it feels like I’m at home there.”

Cindy Ngamba: “I dream about winning Olympic gold”

The European Games are the official continental boxing qualifier for Paris 2024 and Ngamba will need to reach the finals to achieve her dream of competing at the next Olympic Games in France.

But for now, just competing at these Games in Krakow is the most important thing to have happened in her career.

“The proudest moment of my life is just to be able to compete in the European Games,” she says with a smile beaming across her face. “It’s the first qualification for the Olympics so that’s the greatest moment for me.”

This is just the next step on a journey she hopes will take her all the way to an Olympic title where she would realise a hope she has harboured since she was a child.

“I dream about it sometimes and I visualise it for it to actually come into reality,” she says when asked what it would feel like to win Olympic gold.

“I’d be speechless, I’d be lost for words. I would even know where to start.”

A message to refugees across the world

While it’s often said that once you step into a boxing ring you are completely alone, Ngamba will also be carrying the hopes of many who have been inspired by her courage and determination.

And it’s a role she’s proud to take on as she uses her voice to place a spotlight on the plight of displaced people who are struggling across the globe.

“A lot of people around the world don’t have the amount of help and support that they need, for every type of sport and any type of thing that they do in life," she says.

“For me to be a voice for all the refugees all around the world, first of all, I’m grateful and I wish that they can look at me and all the athletes that are Olympic scholarship holders that are taking part in every competition and they can see themselves through them.”