--- title: Cindy Ngamba Wins First Medal for Refugee Olympic Team description: Boxing champion Cindy Ngamba clinched a historic win, making her the first athlete to win an Olympic medal for the Refugee Olympic team. canonical: https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/ author: Solcyré Burga article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-08-04T23:40:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T18:05:12.971Z article:section: Sports og:title: Cindy Ngamba Secures First-Ever Medal for Refugee Olympic Team og:description: To refugees across the globe, Ngamba said: "Keep on believing in yourself, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.” og:url: https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt852d0ce343523d78/698a5997cabb1de67be5467c/Cindy-Ngamba-paris-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Boxing - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 9 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cindy Ngamba Secures First-Ever Medal for Refugee Olympic Team twitter:description: To refugees across the globe, Ngamba said: "Keep on believing in yourself, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt852d0ce343523d78/698a5997cabb1de67be5467c/Cindy-Ngamba-paris-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cindy Ngamba Secures First-Ever Medal for Refugee Olympic Team ## Video: Olympic Boxers Don’t Want to Talk About the Gender Controversy [Watch (HLS stream): Olympic Boxers Don’t Want to Talk About the Gender Controversy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/haRHyNo9.m3u8) (2:48)  _Published 2024-08-02. Lin Yu-Ting, the Taiwanese boxer competing for the Chinese Taipei Olympic delegation defeated Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in a unanimous decision in her opening bout at North Paris Arena on Friday._  by [Solcyré Burga](https://time.com/author/solcyre-burga/)  ## Solcyré Burga Reporter Aug 4, 2024 11:40 PM UTC  ICs indy Ngamba of the Refugee Olympic Team poses for a photo after winning the Women's 75kg Quarter-final match against Davina Michel of Team France on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. ICs indy Ngamba of the Refugee Olympic Team poses for a photo after winning the Women's 75kg Quarter-final match against Davina Michel of Team France on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.Richard Pelham—Getty Images  by [Solcyré Burga](https://time.com/author/solcyre-burga/)  ## Solcyré Burga Reporter Aug 4, 2024 11:40 PM UTC Boxing champion Cindy Ngamba clinched a historic win on Sunday, making her the first athlete to win an Olympic medal for the Refugee Olympic team. Ngamba defeated Davina Michel of France in the 75kg category and now advances to the boxing semifinals. Even athletes that lose in the semifinals are guaranteed a bronze medal, securing her name in the history books. But Ngamba’s ambition reaches farther. “I hope I can change the medal in my next fight," Ngamba said. "It means the world to me." The 25-year-old athlete is originally from Cameroon, where same-sex conduct is criminalized. She was given refugee status because of her sexuality. “It’s illegal to be gay in my country, so if I was sent back, I could have been imprisoned,” Ngamba [previously said](https://www.instagram.com/p/CttZdkytZG8/?igsh=MTZrM2h4aWp3Nzlmbw%3D%3D). She currently lives in the United Kingdom, where she moved to at age 11\. There are 117.3 million people [forcibly displaced](https://www.unhcr.org/us/about-unhcr/who-we-are/figures-glance) worldwide, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The Refugee Olympic Team is relatively new, debuting in Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games. The team “sends a great signal about what an enrichment refugees are for our Olympic community and for society at large,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has [said](https://olympics.com/ioc/refugee-olympic-team). The Paris 2024 team is the largest yet with [37 athletes competing](https://olympics.com/en/olympic-refuge-foundation/refugee-team) in 12 sports including judo, taekwondo, and [breaking](https://time.com/6995876/manizha-talash-breakdancing-olympics-interview-paris/). Some athletes on the Refugee Olympic Team have won medals while representing their home country during previous Olympic Games, but Ngamba is the first to do so for the Refugee Olympic Team. She will next face Panama’s Atheyna Bylon in her next match on Aug. 8\. To refugees across the globe, Ngamba said: "Keep on believing in yourself, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.” ### More From TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/"},"headline":"Cindy Ngamba Secures First-Ever Medal for Refugee Olympic Team","datePublished":"2024-08-04T23:40:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T18:05:12.971Z","description":"To refugees across the globe, Ngamba said: \"Keep on believing in yourself, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.”","url":"https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/","keywords":["2024 Paris Olympics","sponsorshipblock"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt852d0ce343523d78/698a5997cabb1de67be5467c/Cindy-Ngamba-paris-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Solcyré Burga","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/solcyre-burga/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt852d0ce343523d78/698a5997cabb1de67be5467c/Cindy-Ngamba-paris-olympics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Boxing - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 9","caption":"Boxing - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 9","creditText":"Richard Pelham—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2024-paris-olympics/","name":"2024 Paris Olympics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/","name":"Cindy Ngamba Secures First-Ever Medal for Refugee Olympic Team"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Olympic Boxers Don’t Want to Talk About the Gender Controversy","description":"Lin Yu-Ting, the Taiwanese boxer competing for the Chinese Taipei Olympic delegation defeated Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan in a unanimous decision in her opening bout at North Paris Arena on Friday.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/haRHyNo9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-08-02T20:36:42.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/haRHyNo9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/","duration":"PT2M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7007682/cindy-ngamba-medal-refugee-olympic-team/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```