Cyrille Tchatchet: “My trajectory in weightlifting and in life can be useful at the WADA Athlete Council”

His life could be a book, but it almost became a movie. When presenting the Paris 2024 Olympic Refugee Team, the International Olympic Committee produced an inspiring documentary about the journey of these athletes before and during the Tokyo 2020ne Games. One of the profiled stars was Cyrille Tchatchet, born and raised in Cameroon, then a refugee in England, and now already a British citizen. He is in Manama, Bahrein, and will be an active spectator of the IWF World Championships starting this Friday. At the same time, we will also campaign for his most recent endeavour – the candidature to a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Athlete Council membership.

“The idea of weightlifting came at a cousin’s baptism, while in Cameroon. During the celebration, I saw a picture of his father (my uncle), a lifter, and I liked that image so much that I decided I would also try,” recalls Cyrille, also an IWF Athlete Commission member. “But, back then – I was only 14 -, there weren’t many conditions to practice the sport. I was nevertheless strong – in the space of few months, I could snatch 70kg… – and I started to get some encouraging results, both on a local and national level”.

Cyrille Tchatchet: “Weightlifting is now a credible sport!”

That is when his life changed forever. In 2014, at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, he competes for his country, but never returns home. “I felt it wasn’t safe any longer to come back. With the distance and time, I think the decision was taken too much in a hurry, without really thinking about the consequences”.

And those challenges were huge. “I had no acquaintances in the UK, no family, no friends, nothing. I ended up living in the street, and then being detained in many immigration centres. In one of these places, there was a club and could eventually train… That saved me, but I went through a very painful personal experience, mainly from a psychological point of view,” Cyrille admits.

In 2016, he finally gets his asylum request accepted and he enters university to conclude his studies. He always wanted to be a nurse and got specialised in mental health care, which is now his main job. “While enduring my difficult experience, I always had people that helped me, so I felt that I wanted also to assist others”.

In parallel, with a new status and residing in the UK, he could eventually get a membership to compete at British Weightlifting events. Which he did, with remarkable success. In 2018, his efforts paid off, and he was offered an IOC scholarship – that would be the first step into getting his place in the Olympic Refugee Team.

2020 meant a worldwide COVID pandemic and the Tokyo Games had to be postponed. “To be honest, it served quite well my interests. I got a hip injury by that time and the additional year to the Olympics was precious to fully recover,” Cyrille recalls. When the team is formalised, he learns with joy that he will be in the Japanese capital, lifting in the most important sports event on the planet. “It was surreal, a kind of dream. Every athlete trains with the ultimate goal of being at the Olympics, but given my history and the complicated circumstances I lived in, it was quite unthinkable to envisage Olympic participation. But I was there, and it was great, despite the limitations related to COVID. The competition day arrived and I did 155-195, which was a bit below my best expectations, but still quite good taking into account my injury. Moreover, in the snatch part, I had a problem with my elbow, so I couldn’t make the clean and jerk in the best possible conditions”.

Competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games

After Tokyo, and already with a university degree in the pocket, Cyrille starts working as a mental health nurse in the community, alternating his activities between a medical structure and home visits to patients needing his assistance. On the sports side, he continues to train and competes in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where he lifts a very good snatch of 158kg, but then misses the clean and jerk part. At the 2023 Europeans, he is fourth (156-194-350) in the 96kg bodyweight category.

“My goal is to compete at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and earn a medal there. As they are also in Glasgow, it would be a good way to close somehow the circle since 2014,” he admits.

“It is important that our voice and representation became stronger”

Proposed by the Chair of the IWF Athletes Commission Forrester Osei, on behalf of our International Federation, to a membership position in the WADA Athlete Council, Cyrille sincerely thinks he has the legitimacy to advocate for it: “In recent years, there was a profound change of culture in weightlifting. The dark period we endured in the past, namely related to doping cases, is now closed. Our sport became credible and our athletes feel that they can enter into an event and compete fairly with the others,” Cyrille explains.

Moreover, working in the health industry, the successful lifter also believes that he can bring an added-value to the WADA Council. “The athletes’ voice and representation have become stronger over the years. This is important. With my background both in terms of mental health, and also in elite sport, I think I can combine that for the benefit of the WADA. The circumstances of my life made me a strong and resilient person, not only in competition, but also off the platform. This is important for any job or endeavour you take in your life!” Cyrille concludes.

Pedro Adrega
IWF Communications