Boxer Cindy Ngamba made history at the Olympic Games in Paris when she became the first refugee team member to win an Olympic medal. The UK-based Cameroonian claimed the bronze medal in the women’s 75kg category, more than justifying the 25-year-old’s selection as the IOC Olympic Refugee Team’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony on the river Seine.

Ngamba was one of 37 athletes selected for the Olympic Refugee team, which fielded competitors across a range of sports including swimming, athletics, judo, boxing, weightlifting, and badminton.

This was the third time a refugee team has taken part in the Games, following on from Rio in 2016 and Tokyo, held in 2021. There are also eight refugee para-athletes and one guide runner heading to the Paralympics.

The 2024 team included: Eyeru Gebru, a professional cyclist who now lives in France after fleeing civil war in Ethiopia; Switzerland-based South Sudanese runner Dominic Lobalu, who made the 5,000m final; and Yahya Al Ghotany, who took up the taekwondo in Jordan’s Azraq Refugee Camp after fleeing Syria. Fellow taekwondo athlete Farzad Mansouri, who was Afghanistan's flag bearer at the Olympics three years ago but made his way to the UK following the fall of Kabul in September 2021, was also in the refugee team.

Each athlete has their own story of resilience, courage, and hope, including the team’s Chef de Mission Masomah Ali Zada. She competed as a member of the Refugee Olympic Team in Tokyo three years ago after settling in France following threats from the Taliban in her home country of Afghanistan.

"The athletes are already winners because I know how difficult it is to be a refugee,” she said before the Games. “We have had a lot of challenges and difficulties, but we didn't give up. They're a source of inspiration for other refugees all over the world."

Ngamba, who was one of six athletes invited to the stage for the final speech of the closing ceremony in the Stade de France, said: “It means the world to me to become the first-ever refugee athlete to win a medal. I’m human, just like any other refugee around the world. To any refugee out there, athlete or not, keep believing in yourself, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to.”

Having previously competed under the Olympic flag, this year the refugee team was represented by a unique emblem featuring a way marker arrow symbolising the shared journey of displaced people, with a heart at its centre to represent belonging.

The flag and the slogan one in one hundred million – acknowledging the number of refugees around the world – were widely shared on social media through the Games and the refugee athletes received a warm welcome wherever they competed, regardless of individual results.

Almost half of the athletes in this year’s refugee team were born in Iran, where there is strong pressure to conform to government ideology. An example of this came last year, when veteran Iranian weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei was banned from all sports for life after posing with an Israeli athlete on a podium, according to reports by Iranian state news agencies.

Badminton player Dorsa Yavarivafa was one of the Iranians in this year’s refugee team. She fled her homeland at the age of 15. “It was really hard because I had to leave my family and my friends. I had no idea what was going to happen,” explained Yavarivafa in an interview recorded for Unsung, a podcast shining a light on untold sports stories.

Given her arduous journey to the UK - including being imprisoned on three occasions as she traversed through five countries - Yavarivafa was proud to represent refugees on the biggest sporting stage.

“Each of us is one in 100 million and we just want to make them feel proud and tell them you're normal people, and we're normal athletes like other athletes. There is no difference between all of us,” she said. “I always get emotional, and I always get flashbacks. But then I just think that it's over and I’m in a safe place. And all I think about is the Olympics. The way I distract myself is to focus on that. Just put the past away and move on.”

Swimmer Matin Balsini, who has now settled in the UK, represented Iran at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. But in Paris, instead of the Iranian flag next to his name when he lined up behind his blocks, it was the IOC’s refugee emblem.

“I'm so happy to go to the Olympic Games, but it's also a bit sad because I can't swim for my nation anymore,” he said in an interview with Unsung.

“When you're representing the refugee team, you don't have a nation. Before, whenever I went behind the blocks I was thinking of my town, my city. But now it's hard. I'm still thinking about them because I still love my people and my country. But right now, when I go behind the blocks, can I think about them or not anymore?"

Both Yavarivafa and Balsini hope to one day become British citizens. They can take inspiration from taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh, who represented the refugee team in Tokyo, but this year won a bronze medal in the colours of Bulgaria, where she has received citizenship.

“Sport is a powerful tool that protects and helps heal,” said the UN’s deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly T. Clements in a statement. “These refugee athletes have overcome immense challenges, but their success is a reminder to the world of what can be achieved when refugees are given a helping hand to pursue their dreams.”

She added: “Ngamba is a history maker, and this medal is a testament to her courage and strength inside and outside of the ring. It symbolises the enduring spirit of refugees and the power of sports to unite and inspire.”

At the end of 2023, an estimated 117.3 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, and human rights violations, according to UNHCR.

The increase to 117.3 million at the end of 2023 constitutes a rise of 8 per cent or 8.8 million people compared to the end of 2022 and continues a series of year-on-year increases over the last 12 years.

One in every 69 people, or 1.5 per cent of the entire world’s population, is now forcibly displaced. This is nearly double the 1 in 125 people who were displaced a decade ago. - PA