Last August, Sabienne Brutus tore her anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, during a track workout. Her athletic career as a thrower could have ended then, had she chosen to have the surgery that would have taken long months to recover from. Instead, she chose to go through intensive therapy so that she could continue to compete.
It worked at least well enough to earn her an All-American title with a weight throw of 56 feet 1 ? inches at the Indoor Track & Field National Championships.
Brutus came to Tufts as a sprinter, an event that she ran her freshman year winter. As the season went on, however, she didnt feel as though her trajectory was where she wanted it to be, and she began to look at another option.
I wasnt getting better. I was hurt. My two choices were to either quit track or to try something new, and I didnt want to quit athletics, Brutus said. There were these two girls who were throwers we dont have a lot of throwers because theres still sort of a taboo about it. When you think thrower, you think big and fat and all these things, and thats why a lot of people dont get into it, even if theyre good. Girls with the stigmas of society dont really want to lift heavy, because theyre afraid theyre going to look like men.
Luckily for Tufts, this stereotype didnt hold her back.
So these two girls, they were always doing well, and so I was like, You know what, I think I can throw this ball, and from then on, I studied throwing. It wasnt always easy, but I stuck to it. You fall, you get back up, Brutus said.
Throwing successfully requires control, she added.
If youre strong and you think that you can just force it out, youre going to fall. So you have to be patient. Its a sport that requires you to be angry and calm at the same time, she said. At the time you start, you have to be collected; you do your winds, and then you stay collected so you can count your steps as you do 360s in the circle, and by the time you have to release, you better be angry and just yank it out so it can leave and go distances, because its all about distances.
Brutus may have already garnered one All-American title, but shes not done with college athletics yet. Shes looking to earn another title at Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, where if she reaches her goal of throwing the hammer 60 meters, shell have a shot at going to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. There, she would represent Haiti, the country where she grew up, a country that hasnt medalled since 1928.
Alongside her athletic success, Brutus has completed a double major in international relations and political science. She plans on pursuing her interests in international affairs in the future and attending graduate school after she has narrowed down her focus. She has applied for the Peace Corps, a two-year program, but plans on taking time off from academia after graduation, whether through the Peace Corps or not.
Right now, I dont have a job. But the plan is to find whatever it is to find a focus for grad school. I know that I want to go for international relations, but now do I want to do economic development in Latin America? Do I want to work with refugees and their rights on border disputes? Do I want to do women empowerment projects? I feel like after my two years off, I should have an idea of what thats going to be and then go back to grad school for that, she said.
Brutus, who speaks Creole, French, English and Spanish fluently, hopes to learn at least another four languages in her lifetime. She wants to work to improve the world, travelling as much as possible.
I read a quote not too long ago that said, Where your talents and passion meet, there lies your vocation, Brutus said. So hopefully, any talent I have and any passion I have will meet ... I want to help people and also be happy.
