Boxing has often been described as the loneliest of sports, but for Cindy Ngamba, a crowded gym within a Bolton youth club provided her with a home and a purpose when she needed them most.
Aged 15, Ngamba was a shadow of her former self. Shy and lacking confidence, she was still missing home having left Cameroon with her older brother four years prior to live with their father, Gerome in the UK.
But after stumbling in on a boxing class at Bolton Lads and Girls Club she was immediately transfixed. After her first session, she went home and fell further in love with the sport, spending hours trawling through Mike Tyson compilations and rewatching Nicola Adams’ gold medal triumph at the London 2012 Olympics.
Ngamba still had to be patient and spent two years merely skipping and shadow boxing before she was finally offered the chance to put on some gloves and spar. Her first opponent? A boy far taller and heavier than she’ll ever be.
‘I don’t think he was excited. He was like, ‘I don’t want to fight a girl’,’ Ngamba recalls. ‘Once I threw a punch, he was kind of shocked that he’d been punched by a girl. Finally, he threw one back and caught me with a backhand. I remember just seeing a flash and going down on a knee.
‘I think at that moment, everything just went quiet but I just started smirking and giggling. I thought: ‘Oh it’s not that bad getting punched.’ I got up and ever since then, I’ve just kept going.’
In her own words, Ngamba has never thought to herself: ‘I’m the s**t’. And yet, little more than six years on from her amateur debut, she speaks to Metro as a three-time national champion and the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team medallist after upsetting the odds en route to claiming a bronze medal at the Paris Games last summer.
‘To be honest with you, I never really noticed how talented I was,’ she says. ‘It was the people around me who would talk about my potential and what I could achieve but I never had that mindset.
‘Before the Olympic qualifier in Milan, I thought there was no way I’d be able to qualify. It’s not possible. I didn’t know how people could qualify because even then you’re fighting against the best of the best.
‘Then in Paris, I had to push my body to the limit again but I was able to achieve my dream. When I joined my youth club back in Bolton, my goal was to go to the Olympics and win a medal so nothing can ever top that moment.’
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of Ngamba’s historic achievement last summer, however, is how close it was to never happening. When applying for college at age 16, Ngamba realised she did not have the correct papers to be in the UK and could be deported at any moment.
In 2019, her worst nightmare also became a reality. At one of the many routine immigration appointments she attended to try and rectify her situation, Ngamba was arrested, handcuffed and taken to a detention centre near London. Thankfully, last-minute paperwork was sorted to prevent her deportation and soon after she was granted refugee status to remain in the UK indefinitely.
Without citizenship, however, Ngamba was unable to represent Team GB at the Olympics and was stuck in limbo. During lockdown, she strongly considered turning professional before her boxing British boxing officials helped her apply to join the IOC’s refugee team. ‘I was so close to giving up on my dream,’ Ngamba admits.
Part of the reason Ngamba feared deportation so greatly was because of her sexuality. Openly gay since she was 18, the boxer could be sent to prison for up to five years back in Cameroon where homosexuality remains a criminal offence.
And while Ngamba is free to live her life as a lesbian in the United Kingdom, it was back in Cameroon when she first began to get grips with her sexuality.
‘I had a crush on my best friend but she had a crush on my brother, Kennet. She would tell me things to go and tell my brother and I’d think ‘No, I don’t want to tell him’. I knew I was jealous,’ she jokes.
‘I learned more about my sexuality on YouTube. We had a computer in my house, and I would watch videos of people coming out to the family. Some were good, some were very bad. And I questioned, is that going to be me? Is that how my family’s going to react? It kind of pushes you back about wanting to come out or speak to anyone.
‘In the end, my siblings didn’t have any dramatic reaction – they sort of already knew – but the support I’ve received from everyone else has been tremendous. When people look at me, they don’t look at me and say ‘Cindy is a lesbian and likes girls so we don’t want to be next to her and we should judge her’.
‘They look at me because I’m Cindy, and because of what I’ve achieved and what I’ve overcome. I’ll always be open about it and always talk about it. I think it makes me even stronger to be part of such a community.’
Having missed out on gold in Paris, Ngamba hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility of making an Olympic return in Los Angeles but, for now, will turn her attention to the paid ranks.
And in a clear sign of her intent, Ngamba will make her pro debut against experienced English fighter and current European champion Kirstie Bavington in an all-women’s card at London’s Royal Albert Hall on March 7.
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Her profile has grown immensely since her last fight at the Paris Olympics but Ngamba is confident she won’t be fazed when she makes her first ringwalk as a pro.
‘For me, there is no real difference between the amateurs and the professionals. I think people don’t like hearing it, but it’s just another fight, she says. ‘I know that I’m going to the ring with an experienced girl, but I think that’s the calibre of fighter I want to challenge myself against.
‘I knew there was going to be more attention but that’s the life I chose for myself. I chose to put myself in that ring. I chose this journey, and I’ve chosen these challenges. After everything I’ve been through why should I feel scared now?’
Cindy Ngamba was named Sports Hero of the Year at the Metro Pride Awards 2025. You can view the full list of winners by clicking here.
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