Cyrille Fagat Tchatchet II[1] (born 1 August 1995) is a Cameroon-born British weightlifter.[2][3] He competed in the 85 kg weight category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games for the Cameroon team and finished fifth.[4]

Cyrille Tchatchet
Tchatchet in the Olympic Village during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo
Personal information
NationalityCameroonian / British
Born (1995-08-01) 1 August 1995 (age 29)
Yaoundé, Cameroon
Height1.77 m (5 ft 9+12 in)
Weight96 kg (212 lb)
Sport
Country Cameroon
 Great Britain
SportWeightlifting
Event-96 kg
ClubMiddlesex University weightlifting club
Achievements and titles
Personal best360 kg
Medal record
Men's weightlifting
Representing  England
Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships
Gold medal – first place 2023 Delhi 96 kg

He took up weightlifting at the age of 14.[4] He also competed at the British senior weightlifting and under-23 championship 2016 where he was third and first respectively. He won the British, English and BUCS weightlifting championships 2017, 2018 and 2019. In June 2021, he was selected to represent the Refugee Olympic Team in weightlifting.

On the 5th April 2022, Cyrille was cleared by the International Weightlifting Federation to represent British Weight Lifting at international competitions and the England at the Commonwealth Games.[5] His first international competition as a British weightlifter was the 2022 European Weightlifting Championships in Tirana, Albania.

Early life

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Cyrille comes from a family of six children and is the 3rd born. His mother separated with his father in the year 2000 and Cyrille and his siblings were looked after by their mother who is a business woman. He attended Government Bilingual Practising High School in Yaoundé and started studying for a degree in geography at the University of Yaounde before stopping to focus full-time on weightlifting training to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.

Weightlifting career

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Cyrille took up weightlifting at the age of 14 after seeing the picture of his cousin's father who was a weightlifter representing Cameroon. He therefore started training at Golden weightlifting club before switching to WOCA weightlifting club.

Personal life

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Cyrille moved to the United Kingdom in 2014, after defecting from the Cameroonian team during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.[6] He spent two months homeless in Brighton, and contemplated suicide before calling the Samaritans, who talked him out of it.[6]

He obtained refugee status in 2016. He decided to pursue a BSc Mental Health Nursing degree at Middlesex University after experiencing mild depression while claiming asylum,[7] and now works as a mental health nurse.[6]

Major results

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Year Venue Weight Snatch (kg) Clean & Jerk (kg) Total Rank
1 2 3 Rank 1 2 3 Rank
Representing   England
Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship
2023   Greater Noida, India 96 kg 150 155 158 2 185 190 192 2 347 1
Representing the   Refugee Olympic Team
Olympic Games
2021  Tokyo, Japan 96 kg 153 155 160 13 190 190 195 10 350 10
Mid-nationality change
British Championships
2022   Derby, United Kingdom 96 kg 145 150 156 1 185 191 191 1 341 1[8]
2021 Held virtually 96 kg 150 155 160 1 180 190 1 350 1[9]
2019   Coventry, United Kingdom 102 kg 145 150 161 1 185 195 205 1 356 1
2017   Coventry, United Kingdom 94 kg 145 150 150 1 185 195 200 1 340 1
English Championships
2019   Milton Keynes, United Kingdom 96 kg 141 150 150 1 180 180 190 1 340 1
BUCS Championships
2019   London, United Kingdom 102 kg 150 155 160 1 190 190 200 1 360 1
Representing   Cameroon
Commonwealth Games
2014   Glasgow, Scotland 85 kg 135 135 140 5 175 180 180 5 315 5
African Championships
2013   Casablanca, Morocco 94 kg 120 121 122 5 155 160 160 5 277 5

References

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  1. ^ "Cyrille Tchatcet II". Olympedia. OLYMadMen. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  2. ^ Binner, Andrew (9 June 2021). "Meet Cyrille Tchatchet II - The refugee weightlifter who went from homeless to British record holder". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  3. ^ "Weightlifting - TCHATCHET II Cyrille". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Glasgow 2014 – Cyrille Tchatchet II Profile". Glasgow 2014 OC / CGF.
  5. ^ Oliver, Brian (13 April 2022). "Olympic refugee weightlifter Tchatchet cleared to compete at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games". Inside the Games. Dunsar Media. Archived from the original on 13 April 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "We Dare to Dream review – powerful study of what refugee athletes did at the Olympics". The Guardian. 2 December 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Cyrille Tchatchet II: Mental health nursing student and champion weightlifter". Middlesex University. 3 March 2017.
  8. ^ "BRITISH SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022" (PDF). britishweightlifting.org. BWF. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  9. ^ "Results 2021 Virtual British Championships" (PDF).

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1139047/opeloge-samoa-commonwealth-weight

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