CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Editor's Note: If you would like to help Carson Clough with his journey to Paris, visit this link.
At Queens University, Carson Clough is putting in the work: Swimming, biking and running.
"I'm doing everything I can to control myself and my training right now. Hopefully, avoid those extra nerves on race day," he said. “So by the time the race comes around, it's either I put the work in or I didn't.”
Clough’s always putting the work in and is always on the go.
Whether he’s swimming, running, biking, or – making coffee.
Clough is the Co-Founder of the popular Giddy Goat Coffee Roasters in Plaza Midwood, where you will often see him if you can keep up.
For Clough, it’s been a constant movement for all of his 30 years.
“Bouncing off the walls, always competitive," he said. "Very goal-oriented. I had endless energy.”
Sports, the ocean, and family nurtured that spirit.
"I grew up going to the beach, and got a pretty top-notch family," Clough said. "I was kind of given everything growing up and I definitely knew it. That allowed me to really push outside the limits.”
Clough excelled in the classroom and athletics at Charlotte Latin School, then played some lacrosse at UNC, before graduating with degrees in biology, chemistry and entrepreneurship.
Life was swimming right along.
Until one summer day on Lake Norman five years ago, swimming back to the boat after wakeboarding, a freak accident unfolded.
"Both feet met the propeller," he said. "And I found out how strong those propellers really are. I noticed that there was blood and I did look up and see that my foot was missing."
His parents received the call no parent wanted to get, as Carson was being airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center.
When his mother, Brenda, met him there, he immediately reassured her.
“Carson was on a gurney. I couldn't see at that moment what was going on really," she said. "Except he lifted his head and he goes, 'Mom, I think I'm gonna be fine.'”
Clough had to have everything below his right knee amputated. Doctors saved his left leg.
This is where you’ll find out something else Clough didn’t lose was his sense of humor.
“My right foot is still [in the lake]," he said. "So if you find it, you can keep it. I don’t necessarily need that back.”
Doctors said he’d be in the hospital for weeks. But nine days later, Carson Clough wheeled himself out.
It was the beginning of what he matter-of-factly calls his "one-legged life."
"It’s just another challenge trying to slow me down,” he said.
By now you know it didn’t slow him down at all.
After a month, Clough got his first prosthetic and immediately began testing it out by walking at Freedom Park.
“I just really had the mindset that the more pain that I can put it through in the beginning, the better off it'll be in the end,” Clough said.
Walking was the first step, then running, then a running leg, then biking and swimming. All of a sudden, USA Triathlon invited him for a test in Colorado Springs.
“It wasn't anything I did in my two-legged life," he said.
Clough’s rise to the top of the rankings in para-triathlon has been astounding. And now, he’s going to Paris to compete in the Paralympics.
"I never thought I would have a chance to be involved with any team USA whether it's one-legged or two-legged," he said. "So I really have nothing to lose, and I'm not going there for fun. I'm going there to win."
It's a positive mentality his family is certainly used to.
"Where a door closes a window opens," Brenda Clough said. "And he has definitely proven that. So I have learned so much from him.”
And now, many others who think the loss of a limb might mean the loss of everything life has to offer, are learning from him too.
"Put a goal out there that you're not supposed to be able to get to and go get it," he said. "And that's what I'm doing. And if I can inspire people along the way, I'm obviously stoked about that.”
Note: Charlotte filmmaker Henry Davis, a longtime friend of Clough, is directing a feature-length documentary following Clough's path to the Paris Games. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, reach out to henry@spiralstud.io
Contact Nick Carboni at ncarboni@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.