Florida Tech Alumni Carson Clough to Compete in Para Triathlon at 2024 Paris Paralympics

Clough was involved in a boating accident that led to a below-the-knee amputation

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

The games are set to take place from August 28 through September 8 with the triathlon scheduled to run from September 1 to September 2.

The Para triathlon, like all other paralympic events, is held over the ‘sprint’ distance, which is half the length of the Olympic distance for individual competition. For the para triathlon, athletes swim 750m, cycle 20km, and run 5km.

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

A current resident of Charlotte, North Carolina, Clough competed in his first triathlon in 2022 and has been racing ever since.

He competes in the PTS4 class, which is composed of athletes who are classified as having moderate impairment.

PT categories refer to those with physical impairments, such as athletes with impaired range of movement or amputee athletes who use approved prostheses.

The list of PT classes is shown below:

■  PTS2: Severe impairments.

■ PTS3: Significant impairments.

■ PTS4: Moderate impairments.

■ PTS5: Mild impairments.

Other para-triathlon categories include PTWC classes for wheelchair users and PTVI categories for those who race with visual impairments.

The 2022 Americas Triathlon Para Championships Sarasota-Bradenton which were held back on March 13, 2022, was Clough’s first competition in which he finished in fifth place with a time of 1:10:45 broken down by swim (00:14:28), transition one (00:01:12), cycle (00:33:56), transition two (00:01:04), and run (00:21:09).

From his first competition in March of 2022, Clough would go on to compete in four more triathlons before July 17th, 2022. On this date, the Charlotte, N.C. native would go on to compete and win the PTS4 Men’s USA Paratriathlon National Championships in Long Beach, California, finishing the race in 1:05:24, a personal best at the time.

Clough’s time breakdown for his first victory consisted of swimming (00:14:01), transition one (00:02:54), bicycling (00:32:04), transition two (00:0045) and running (00:19:06).

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

Having placed fifth the year prior, this time around Clough managed to earn his second first-place finish of his para-triathlon career and his first sub-one-hour race, completing the event in a total time of 00:59:59. His time was broken down into swimming (00:10:54), transition one, (00:00:51), bicycling (00:28:40), transition two (00:00:38), and running (00:18:58)

Fast forward ahead a year later to March 8th, 2024, with a total of 15 triathlons and three first-place finishes, Clough set a new personal best time when he finished the 2024 Americas Triathlon Championships in Miami in (00:59:06).

His splits for the race consisted of swim (00:11:09), transition one (00:01:19), cycling (00:27:44), transition two (00:00:39), and running (00:18:17).

As of August 13, 2024, since the accident back in 2019, Clough has competed in a total of 19 Para triathlons while achieving four victories and nine top-three finishes.

Heading into Paris, clough is ranked the No.2 PTS4 Men’s Para triathlete in the world, with Alexis Hanquinquant from France ranked just above him.

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 with a total of 15 appearances while accumulating 77 points from 43 goals and 34 assists with 83 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.

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

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