Clara Brown

Brown is a two-time Paralympian, representing Team USA at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. At the Paris Paralympics, she earned a bronze medal in the C1-3 Women's Road Race and finished eighth in the Time Trial after recording top-10 finishes in all three of her events at the Tokyo Games.

An active athlete from a young age, Brown was a competitive gymnast, runner, and skier before sustaining an incomplete spinal cord injury at age 12 during gymnastics practice. After years of rehabilitation, she returned to sport as a rowing coxswain in high school but eventually sought an activity powered by her own physical effort.

She found that spark on a modified road bike during her freshman year of college and never looked back. A job at a bike touring company led to a connection with the U.S. Paralympics community, and in 2018, she was invited to a Talent ID camp. Just two months later, she won bronze in her first international race at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Baie-Comeau.

Since then, Brown has established herself as one of the world's top C3 cyclists. She is a four-time UCI World Champion, winning track titles in the 500m Time Trial and Omnium in 2020, the Road Time Trial in 2022, and the Road Race in 2025. She has also earned 15 UCI World Championship medals across road and track disciplines and claimed the overall UCI Para-cycling World Cup title in 2021 and 2023. Brown is coached by her partner, Noah Middlestaedt.

Off the bike, Brown enjoys cooking breakfast, hiking, camping, downhill skiing, and spending time with her two dogs, Kyia, a chocolate Labrador, and Randy, a mixed-breed rescue. She is also an avid pilot, earning her private pilot license just before the Paris Paralympic Games. She has since added an instrument rating and is currently working toward her commercial pilot and certified flight instructor ratings. When she's not training, she can often be found flying her 1969 Cessna 150J.