Women’s Olympic boxing celebrates more than a decade of success at Paris 2024
Women’s boxing was reignited at the London Olympic Games, where Katie Taylor and Nicola Adams shone in two scintillating finals.
The Olympics is always at the forefront when it comes to unearthing sporting talent. An 18-year-old Cassius Clay – now more commonly known as “the Greatest”, Muhammad Ali – secured gold in 1960, winning his light heavyweight final in Rome.
Had it not been for this success as an amateur, which then catapulted him into an iconic era of heavyweight boxing, it is highly likely that the trajectory of Ali’s professional career would have looked vastly different.
The same could be said for a small crop of fighters who entered an Olympic ring for the first time in 2012. While women’s boxing first appeared in the Olympics as a demonstration sport in 1904, there was no certainty that it would ever return to the coveted tournament.
More than a century later, though, Adams became the first woman to win gold in boxing. This moment inspired an entire generation of girls who, having now picked up a pair of gloves, feel empowered and confident in a sport that, previously, dismissed their efforts to compete.
But the biggest shift in momentum came when, during the same tournament, Natasha Jonas – who became the first female boxer to represent team GB – came face to face with an Irish phenom who, shortly after, would take the sport by the scruff of the neck and demand it to address its long standing exclusion of women.
Taylor has won every accolade that the sport can offer, and still looks to exceed expectations at the age of 37. She is the embodiment of what the Olympics is all about: overcoming adversity, pushing yourself to your physical and psychological limit in, yes, the pursuit of medals but, more importantly, a brighter future.
Taylor and Jonas remain as two of the leading figureheads for women’s boxing. The pair clashed for a second time in 2021 when, as professionals, their encounter made for another absorbing clash of styles.
While both fighters, and others alike, have paved the way for changes in attitudes towards the sport, most would credit Taylor for taking women’s boxing to the next level. After winning gold, when she first approached Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, Taylor refused to be denied a professional contract.
Before she took the leap, though, women were reluctant to chase world titles because of the lack of money involved in championship fights. Yet now, there are female fighters campaigning for 12x3min rounds, something that would never have been possible without persistence from the likes of Taylor.
While the future is no doubt brighter, there is still an ongoing struggle that compels athletes to fight on two fronts.
The Refugee Olympic Team – consisting of athletes whose sport has given them hope, perhaps even freedom – burst onto the scene in 2016, leading to the emergence of stories that transcend the events which took place in Rio.
This year in Paris, Cindy Ngamba will represent the team in boxing. She became the first refugee fighter to qualify for an Olympic boxing tournament, and looks on course to achieve something even greater this summer.
But her journey outside of the ring has been far from plain sailing. Ngamba moved to Bolton with her family at the age of ten and, because of her sexuality, cannot return to her home in Cameroon, where homosexuality is a punishable offence.
Then, following years of adjusting to her new surroundings, Ngamba was arrested and nearly deported after trying to let authorities know that she was still in the country during a signing-on process.
After being thrown into a van with handcuffs, detained in Manchester and then sent to London, she was finally released following a phone call with her uncle who lives in Paris and works for the government.
Speaking with BBC Sport, she said: “The way I see it is that all those setbacks, coming to the UK, my childhood, the paper situation and my boxing, it just makes me stronger mentally and physically.
“I believe I can achieve anything that I put my mind to because I’ve gone through worse with my paper situation.”
Now, Ngamba looks to secure her UK citizenship but, until then, she will continue her progression in boxing at an unrelenting rate.
Feature image credit: Kent Capture
