Trading trauma for triumph

After the incident, Matthews took a two-year hiatus from sports, unsure where her life would go from there. That was until, by chance, she discovered a way that she might be able to compete again.

"After my amputation, I was looking for a new prosthetist, and I was up in Oklahoma City, and they actually had a brochure for sitting volleyball at the Scott Sabolich clinic I was visiting," said Matthews. "I e-mailed them and asked for a tryout, because I had never heard of the Paralympics before that."

She not only made the team, she's now got four Paralympic medals.

For Clough, after becoming more comfortable in the three aspects of triathlon, he quickly put his months of training to use.

In June 2022, he finished eighth at the World Triathlon Para Cup Besancon in France. This result set him up for a series of World Triathlon races that would eventually lead him to take first in the 2024 Americas Triathlon Para Championships in Miami in March, qualifying him for the Paralympics.

After this first intense run of competition, Clough centered his focus on putting in the work for Paris.

"For the past four months it's just been actually listening to everything (Sortino) says, because he, as well as my manager and all the coaches, they know what they're doing. I have no idea what I'm doing."

The result? Clough ended up medaling in his first ever Paralympic race, taking silver in the PTS4 class for athletes with affected coordination on one side, or the absence of limbs.

As he enjoys this accomplishment, he's already looking ahead to future competitions, including the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles.

"You know everybody says, 'it never gets easier, you only get faster,' but I'm gonna prove them wrong," he said "I'm gonna make it easier."

Like Clough, Matthews sees a message in their stories.

"A lot of times when you're injured, you just think you've got to find a new path, you can't do athletics anymore," she said, "but then people see this, and they're like 'Wow, I can continue to grow even better as an athlete'."

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