Refugee Olympic Team boxer Cindy Ngamba and her entirely British corner had to settle for bronze as her fairy-tale Paris 2024 was brought to a halt in an agonisingly close semi-final.
It has been a thoroughly underwhelming onslaught for British boxing at these Games, but a podium spot for Ngamba, who fled to the UK as a child with her Cameroonian family, will be cherished just as warmly as the bronze won by Lewis Richardson.
Ngamba, who had already entered uncharted territory as the first Refugee Team member to secure a medal, was undone by the significantly more experienced Atheyna Bylon, 35, of Panama.
Gangly Bylon had by far the better first round before Ngamba rallied in the second leaving major drama in the third. There was a glimmer of hope for Ngamba after the referee warned Bylon twice to stop holding but she was eventually edged out by split decision.
As Bylon jumped for joy, the despair in Ngamba’s corner – familiar faces for seasoned veterans of GB boxing – was tangible. Darren Maher, Gary Hale and Lee Pullen are seconded from Team GB, and had been so proud of Ngamba’s against-the-odds feats.
Ngamba’s story is comparable to the rise of Mo Farah, who won four Olympic gold medals in a British vest. Having escaped discrimination in her home country of Cameroon, Ngamba then faced prejudice at school in Bolton, singled out for her weight, hair and the way she spoke,
Now, however, she climbs as high as any Briton on the podium at these Games. Only Richardson has secured a medal in Paris. The other five Britons were dumped out in their first bouts. But as concerns around the future of amateur boxing in Britain simmer, the same support staff that rally behind Ngamba are relishing her success.
“She’s trained and operated with us, we’ve looked after her for three years,” Rob McCracken, the head coach of GB Boxing told Telegraph Sport ahead of this fight. “It’s already massive what she has done, but if she got to the final it would be fantastic. What a story.”
Winner is literally one of her middle names and it has been some ride for the 25-year-old, who was overweight, shy and bereft of self-confidence when she walked into a Bolton gym aged 15.
She has since arrived at the Olympics via a University of Bolton course in criminology yet British citizenship still eludes her. Aged 19, she was arrested as an illegal immigrant.
Terrified of being sent back to Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal and her openly gay status would have placed her in significant danger, she found herself turned mute in her panic. She was incapable of explaining to anyone who she was. Fortunately, her brother quickly got on the case, lobbying everyone he knew, including Bolton’s MP. And eventually she was granted asylum.
Her official status is as a training partner of the GB Boxing squad. In practice, she trains with the other elite boxers for four days a week in Sheffield and attends training camps and competitions with the squad. She has sparred hundreds of times with Lauren Price, who won gold in the middleweight division in Tokyo.