Olympics star, 26, grew up in England but can’t compete for Team GB and risks JAIL if she returns to home country
CINDY NGAMBA is the Olympian who grew up in England and trains with Team GB - but will not represent them.
Ngamba left Cameroon for Britain aged 11 and has forged a successful path into boxing - reigning as a three-time English champion.
And despite training and travelling with Team GB - she instead represents the Olympic Refugee team.
She told iNews: “I feel I’m already part of Great Britain.
“I train with them, travel with them, compete with them, I just don’t represent them.”
Ngamba has lived in England for over half her life, where she also went to school and university while also having family in the UK.
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It was ten years after uprooting with her brother and uncle to Britain - where her father lived - and eight attempts before she was granted papers to stay.
She was arrested in 2019 as she signed on at an immigration centre.
Ngamba, 26, said: “I was with my brother. We went there, to Manchester, every week but this time, we were arrested.”
They were sent to separate detention camps in London and spent two days there before the Home Office were satisfied they had family in the UK.
Prison would also be a threat if Ngamba was to return to Cameroon, where same-sex sexual activity is criminalised.
She said: “You can be killed, beaten up or put in prison. I can’t go back.”
Ngamba received her asylum papers in 2020 and was already on track for a successful career in boxing.
She first started aged 14 in Bolton Lads and Girls Club which is part of the national OnSide network of youth zones but was the only female fighter.
Ngamba said: “I was the only girl. Going there meant the world to me.
"It gave me something to look forward to after school and kept me off the streets where I could have been dragged into something bad.”
Ngamba's Olympic dream got the green light when she won sponsorship from the Olympic Refugee Federation.
She faces Tammara Thibeault of Canada in the first round of the middleweight bracket.
Ngamba trained alongside Team GB athletes at the national institute in Sheffield ahead of the Games.
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And there is already hope she will finally win citizenship to join GB for the next Olympics in LA in 2028.
But Ngamba said: “I’m not really focused on my future at the moment, I’m focused on the present, on my medal, on winning.”
