Cindy Ngamba waves to the crowd following a preliminary round victory at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. | Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images

Team LGBTQ is used to making history and blazing new trails at the Olympics.

But on Sunday, boxer Cindy Ngamba took intersectional barrier-breaking to a new level and entered her name in Olympic lore forever.

With a victory over French fighter Davina Michel, Ngamba became the first athlete in history to clinch a medal while representing the Refugee Olympic Team.

The fight went the distance and Ngamba won by unanimous decision. She will square off with  Panamanian boxer Atheyna Bylon on Thursday for the right to compete in the gold medal match.

Thanks to her performance thus far, Ngamba is guaranteed to earn at least a bronze.  Following the historic bout, Ngamba was elated at the magnitude of her accomplishment. 

“This means the world to me. I hope I can change the color of my medal in the next fight! I want to tell the refugees around the world, keep on working hard, keep on pushing yourself, and you can accomplish anything,” she said.

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Olympic athletes have been competing under the banner of the Refugee Olympic Team since the Rio Games of 2016 and Ngamba’s accomplishment marks the first time one of them will finish on the medal podium.

Born in Cameroon, Ngamba and her parents fled her native country during a period of civil strife in 2009 and resettled in Bolton, England.

Ngamba identifies as gay and though the UK has not granted her citizenship, after she came out, Britain granted her asylum in 2022. Because Cameroon criminalizes homosexuality, if Ngamba were to be deported to her homeland, she could potentially face a prison sentence.

She came dangerously close once before. During what she assumed was a routine document signing at an immigration office in 2019, Ngamba was handcuffed, arrested and threatened with deportation. 

Five years after that life changing ordeal, she has earned an Olympic medal with the potential to take home the gold.

“Cindy is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met,” British boxing coach Nick Rayner told The Athletic’s Simon Hughes, “She hasn’t had it easy. She just wants to be a Brit. She’s faced so many hurdles. All the way through life, she’s been told that she can’t be something or do something.”

In spite of all of the obstacles and naysayers, Ngamba is now a part of sports history for both the Refugee Olympic Team and Team LGBTQ.

If she earns gold, she’ll make history all over again in the best possible way.