Refugee boxer to be Paris 2024 Olympic flagbearer

Cindy Ngamba trains at the Team GB gym at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield

A boxer who fled Cameroon to the UK when she was 10 years old and who trains in Sheffield will be a flagbearer at the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.

Cindy Ngamba, 25, will be part of a 37-strong IOC Refugee Olympic Team attending the event on Friday.

Miss Ngamba does not have UK citizenship, despite calling England her home, and so will represent the refugee team at Paris 2024 instead of Team GB.

She said: "I just want to tell every refugee out there, whether they are an athlete or not, to never give up."

The boxing ace has made a life for herself in the UK, going to school in Bolton and gaining a degree in criminology at the town's university.

"The reason why I came to the UK was for a better life, a better career and greater opportunity," Miss Ngamba said.

However, she said her passion was for sport, which she was first encouraged to pursue at the age of 15 at the Elite Boxing gym in Bolton.

A decade later, Miss Ngamba trains at the Team GB gym at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

She said she was confident she would get a medal at Paris 2024, and she is one of the favourites to do so, despite the obstacles she has had to surmount.

"I'm overwhelmed, I'm honoured and I'm happy," Miss Ngamba said.

"It's just positive energy going through my blood and my mind at the moment.

"I'm just like the other 36 athletes - I'm just hungry to achieve my dream. My aim is to win a medal and be on the podium."

She added that she would "hold my refugee flag high so people and other refugees around the world can see it and be proud to call themselves refugees".

The Paris 2024 Olympics start with the opening ceremony on 26 July and will conclude on 11 August.

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