Clough was involved in a boating accident that resulted in a below-knee amputation

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Carson Clough ’18 of the Florida Tech men’s lacrosse team has been named to Team USA Paratriathlon for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

The games will take place from August 28 to September 8, and the triathlon is scheduled for September 1-2.

The Para-Triathlon, like all other Paralympic events, is held over the sprint distance, which is half the Olympic distance for individual events. In the Para-Triathlon, athletes swim 750 m, cycle 20 km and run 5 km.

In 2019, Clough was involved in a boating accident that resulted in a below-the-knee amputation of his right leg.

Clough, who currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, competed in his first triathlon in 2022 and has been competing ever since.

He competes in the PTS4 class, which consists of athletes whose disability is classified as moderate.

PT categories refer to individuals with physical impairments, such as athletes with limited range of motion or amputee athletes who use approved prostheses.

The list of PT classes is shown below:

■ PTS2: Severe impairment.

■ PTS3: Significant impairment.

■ PTS4: Moderate impairment.

■ PTS5: Mild impairment.

Other para-triathlon categories include PTWC classes for wheelchair users and PTVI categories for the visually impaired.

The 2022 Americas Triathlon Para Championships Sarasota-Bradenton, held on March 13, 2022, was Clough’s first competition, where he finished fifth with a time of 1:10:45, split between swim (00:14:28), transition 1 (00:01:12), bike (00:33:56), transition 2 (00:01:04), and run (00:21:09).

After his first competition in March 2022, Clough competed in four more triathlons through July 17, 2022. On that day, the Charlotte, North Carolina native competed in and won the PTS4 Men’s USA Paratriathlon National Championships in Long Beach, California, finishing the race in 1:05:24, his personal best at the time.

Clough’s time breakdown for his first win consisted of swimming (00:14:01), transition 1 (00:02:54), cycling (00:32:04), transition 2 (00:0045) and running (00:19:06).

Nearly a year after his first competition and seven triathlons later, Clough returned to Sarasota on March 12 for the 2023 Americas Triathlon Para Championships.

After finishing fifth the year before, this time Clough managed to achieve his second first place in his para-triathlon career and his first sub-hour race, finishing the race in a total time of 00:59:59. His time was broken down into swim (00:10:54), transition 1 (00:00:51), bike (00:28:40), transition 2 (00:00:38) and run (00:18:58).

A year later, on March 8, 2024, after a total of 15 triathlons and three first places, Clough set a new personal best when he finished the 2024 Americas Triathlon Championships in Miami with (00:59:06).

His split times for the race consisted of swimming (00:11:09), transition 1 (00:01:19), cycling (00:27:44), transition 2 (00:00:39) and running (00:18:17).

Since his accident in 2019, i.e. since August 13, 2024, Clough has competed in a total of 19 para-triathlons, achieving four wins and nine top-three finishes.

Heading into Paris, Clough is the second-best PTS4 para-triathlete in the world, just ahead of Frenchman Alexis Hanquinquant.

After transferring from the University of North Carolina, Clough joined the Panthers as a graduate student for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

During his time at Tech, he started every game in 15 appearances and scored 77 points on 43 goals and 34 assists with 83 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.

Academically, Clough was named to both Florida Tech’s Athletic Director and SSC Commissioner Honor Rolls in 2017.

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