.jpg) Tchatchet in the Olympic Village during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Cameroonian / British | ||||||||||||||
| Born | (1995-08-01) 1 August 1995 Yaoundé, Cameroon | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 96 kg (212 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Country |  Cameroon Great Britain | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | Weightlifting | ||||||||||||||
| Event | -96 kg | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Middlesex University weightlifting club | ||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||
| Olympic finals | 10 | ||||||||||||||
| National finals | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Personal best | 360 kg | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
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]
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.
Cyrille was elected to the World Anti Doping Agency Athlete's Council Group 2 for 2025-2027. The election was held virtually via an online voting platform between 10–12 December 2024.
Early life
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
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
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
| Year | Venue | Weight | Snatch (kg) | Clean & Jerk (kg) | Total | Rank | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | Rank | |||||
Representing  England | ||||||||||||
| European Championships | ||||||||||||
| 2026 |  Batumi, Georgia | 110 kg | 155 | 160 | 15 | 195 | 201 | 207 | 11 | 367 | 12 | |
| Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship | ||||||||||||
| 2023 |  Greater Noida, India | 96 kg | 150 | 155 |  | 185 | 190 | 192 | | 347 |  | |
Representing the  Refugee Olympic Team | ||||||||||||
| Olympic Games | ||||||||||||
| 2021 |  Tokyo, Japan | 96 kg | 155 | 13 | 190 | 195 | 10 | 350 | 10 | |||
| Mid-nationality change | ||||||||||||
| British Championships | ||||||||||||
| 2022 |  Derby, United Kingdom | 96 kg | 145 | 150 | 156 | 1 | 185 | 1 | 341 | [8] | ||
| 2021 | Held virtually | 96 kg | 150 | 160 | 1 | 190 | – | 1 | 350 | [9] | ||
| 2019 | Coventry, United Kingdom | 102 kg | 145 | 150 | 161 | 1 | 185 | 195 | 1 | 356 | | |
| 2017 | Coventry, United Kingdom | 94 kg | 145 | 1 | 185 | 195 | 1 | 340 | | |||
| English Championships | ||||||||||||
| 2019 | Milton Keynes, United Kingdom | 96 kg | 141 | 150 | 1 | 180 | 190 | 1 | 340 | | ||
| BUCS Championships | ||||||||||||
| 2019 | London, United Kingdom | 102 kg | 150 | 155 | 160 | 1 | 190 | 200 | 1 | 360 | | |
| Representing Cameroon | ||||||||||||
| Commonwealth Games | ||||||||||||
| 2014 |  Glasgow, Scotland | 85 kg | 135 | 140 | 5 | 175 | 5 | 315 | 5 | |||
| African Championships | ||||||||||||
| 2013 |  Casablanca, Morocco | 94 kg | 122 | 5 | 155 | 5 | 277 | 5 | ||||
References
- "Cyrille Tchatcet II". Olympedia. OLYMadMen. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- 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.
- "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.
- "Glasgow 2014 – Cyrille Tchatchet II Profile". Glasgow 2014 OC / CGF.
- 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.
- "We Dare to Dream review – powerful study of what refugee athletes did at the Olympics". The Guardian. 2 December 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- "Cyrille Tchatchet II: Mental health nursing student and champion weightlifter". Middlesex University. 3 March 2017.
- "BRITISH SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022" (PDF). britishweightlifting.org. BWF. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- "Results 2021 Virtual British Championships" (PDF).
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1139047/opeloge-samoa-commonwealth-weight
External links
- Cyrille Tchatchet at the International Weightlifting Federation
- Cyrille Tchatchet at the International Weightlifting Results Project
- Cyrille Tchatchet at Olympics.com
- Cyrille Tchatchet at Olympedia
- Cyrille Tchatchet at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)
- Cyrille Tchatchet at Team England
- Cyrille Tchatchet at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
- Records set at 2019 British Championships