by Ebony L. Morman 

The Giddy Goat Coffee Roasters co-founder Carson Clough runs anywhere between 25 to 45 miles each week. He also spends ample time swimming and biking. Together, that amounts to nearly 25 hours of physical training — and that doesn’t include the necessary time spent on nutrition and recovery. While this may seem ambitious, it’s not for the triathlete. For the past three years, Clough has been training for the 2024 Paralympic Games, which takes place in Paris from August 28 through September 8. His race will take place on September 1. 

Growing up, one of Clough’s favorite movies was Miracle on Ice, a film about the United States Olympic hockey team’s 1980 victory. That movie was the extent of his knowledge about the Olympics. Though he was a Division 1 lacrosse athlete at UNC Chapel Hill, the Olympics weren’t on his radar because at the time, lacrosse wasn’t a sport in the Olympics. 

Clough continued to play sports and live an active lifestyle until he was involved in a boating accident on Lake Norman in 2019. The injury led to an amputation below his right knee. Though Clough is an athlete at heart, the Paralympics didn’t cross his mind even after the accident. 

Then, Clough got an email from the U.S.A. Triathlon in January of 2022. They wanted him to test for a paratriathlon. That’s when things changed. An email was the start of Clough’s journey to the 2024 Paralympic Games. 

“It is not something I would have ever thought I would do,” Clough says. “And, it sounded like a good little challenge. It really didn’t matter what sport it was, I was going to go for it.”

Unpretentious Palate spoke with Clough to learn more about the upcoming games, his training, and to get an update on Giddy Goat just as he was preparing the move to Park City, Utah, to embark on his final piece of training before the event. 

Unpretentious Palate: How did your involvement in the Paralympic Games come about? 
Carson Clough: It was kind of wild. I do triathlons. I’m a part of the USA Paralympic national team. I did my first race in March 2022, after the USA team reached out to me and did some testing on my run, bike, and swim in Colorado Springs, and then got me rocking and rolling. In my two legged life, I played different sports, like lacrosse, football, basketball, hockey. I was never a runner other than sprinting. But I got an email and it said, Team USA, and it had the olympic rings and paralympic rings and I decided to give it a shot. It was just kind of like stars aligning. They put me in my first race. And I did another domestic race, and then after that, it was all international. I was always active and staying in shape but definitely not at this level. 

UP: How did you get on their radar?
CC: That is one thing that’s a big question everybody has that I do not have the answer to. I don’t know how I got it. It was like a mass email, but I had to have gotten put on it somehow. And yeah, we’re not, we’re not totally sure. It was just they sent me. It’s a mass email they send to people and say, “submit your 1K runtime and submit your 200-meter swim time.” And I did that, and then they flew me out to Colorado Springs to kind of do the next round of testing. It was kind of out of nowhere. 

UP: How has your life changed since you first said yes? 
CC: I was in a boat accident right when I was starting up Giddy Goat. And that’s how I became an amputee. And as soon as that happened, I just got kind of right back to it. And the goal was to get Giddy Goat started. And I was full on, 150 percent doing that. Before I got contacted, I was just looking to get back into the competitive side of things. I grew up playing sports and being competitive in my daily life, and so when this came across, it gave me that chance to do it again. It was one of those things where I’ve always been kind of envious of athletes, trainers, or people that can make a living while staying in shape and being healthy. This was an opportunity for me to do now. It changed my life because I do way more running, biking and swimming than I ever did. I’m healthier and my work’s better. It was a change for the better. 

UP: On average, how many races do you run each year? 
CC: Last year, my first race was the continental championship, and that was in Florida. That was the Canada, North America, and South American championships. So Florida in March. Then, I went straight from Miami to Australia, and I had a race there. About a month later, I had a race in Japan. A month after that, it was in Montreal. A month after that, I was in Wales. Then, it was Paris for the Paralympic test event, and then it was Spain for the World Championships.

UP: What are your expectations for the 2024 Paralympic Games? 
CC: I’m looking forward to it. I’m trying to represent Charlotte and the U.S.A. My expectation is I’m going to do whatever I can to try and win the gold medal. I say that humbly. I think that it’s definitely not a given. The way I look at it is that it’s a situation I never thought I would be in. And for my race, specifically for my category, we have one guy who has not really lost in the past six years. And so the way I’m looking at it is, I got nothing to lose, so I’m going all I’m going all in. I’m moving to Park City, Utah to train with a bunch of two-legged potential olympians. And my thought behind that is, if I can start to keep up with the two-legged athletes, then hopefully I can beat all the one-legged athletes. 

UP: What is your category? 
CC: PTS4. For the Paralympics, they have different categories based on the severity of people’s disability. My category is above the elbow amputee and below the knee amputee. Then you have two wheelchair categories, two blind categories, and four standing. 

UP: Where does Giddy Goat fit into everything? How do you manage it all? 
CC: Luckily, I just had one of the most badass teams in all of Charlotte. They motivate and support me and they are on my team. They’re supporting me in every way, especially the owner, Rhyne Davis and his wife, Lisa. They’re all about me taking this adventure to the highest level that I can. So I’m still involved, and I help manage new growth. And I’m a problem-solver. I work directly with my general manager and my culinary director, we’re about to ramp up the bar and get normal bar hours alongside the coffee roasting and cafe. I don’t have much of a role in the day to day in the shop anymore, and that’s all thanks to my team. I wouldn’t give myself the credit. It’s the people I have around me that have really allowed me to manage them both. 

UP: Tell us more about the upcoming bar program at Giddy Goat? 
CC: My younger brother has experience with managing and starting up bars, and so we recently hired him to the team, and he’s taking that over and going to be putting together a new menu, new, extended hours, and new fun little spin off as we get the bar rolling. 

Initially, we had planned to have some sort of bar business but we just wanted to focus on the coffee at first. Luckily, we had a lot of support with the coffee side. When we started up, it was in 2020 and we didn’t have staff to be able to open up those full hours. So instead of rushing things and not doing it the right way, we wanted to focus on the coffee and still have some beer, wine and liquor options. Now, we’re really going to be focusing and then putting together a full on bar business. 

UP: What was the initial vision for Giddy Goat? How does that vision compare to what business is now?  
CC: My business partner Rhyne approached me and said, I really want to start a retail coffee shop where we can teach everybody what roasting coffee is. So right when you walk in the front door, there’s a big roaster. That’s where we roast all the coffee in-house and throughout the neighborhood, we’re more roasting, you can see the smoke and you can smell it. And then offer espresso drinks, drip coffee options, and tea options. And then, since the building had a kitchen and we started to develop the culinary program, and Tony Tognarelliis my culinary director, and he was able to join the team and really help add some things, like empanadas and burritos to the menu and just create good compliments to the coffee.

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If you’re interested in supporting and following Clough’s journey, visit his page here.