Cam Ruffini

Happy birthday to the USA’s Cam Ruffini, who closed out four years of college sprinting by running the fastest 400m of her life at her final conference championship.

That is the ending every senior wants and very few get. Cam ran her lifetime best over 400m at the NJAC Championships in May, in her last conference meet, in her last season for The College of New Jersey. Four years, from freshman to senior, and the best race came last. She also picked up a First Team All-NJAC honour in the distance medley relay and made the conference All-Academic team twice, and in her final spring she added the javelin to her programme, because apparently the sprints were not enough on their own.

Division III athletics is the least glamorous corner of American college sport and in some ways the most honest one. There are no scholarships. Nobody is there on an athletic ride. Every athlete in a D-III conference final has arranged four years of practice, travel and competition around a full academic load, entirely because they wanted to keep racing.

Which brings us to the other thing she did this year. Cam is an accounting major with a minor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies, and her senior capstone examined the impact of online violence against women of colour, and Black women in particular. Her department published a public congratulation on it. She has said her biggest thrill in the sport was running the 200m at the state championship meet, and her favourite athlete is Abby Steiner, which is exactly the right answer for a 200/400 runner.

Happy birthday, Cam! Four years, a lifetime best in the last one, and a capstone that mattered. Go get it. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇺🇸