Matt Grevers On Rick DeMont: 'The Sport Needs More Rockets'
2017 arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara
June 1 - 4, 2017Santa Clara, California
George F. Haines International Swim Center
LIVE RESULTS
After a second place finish to Ryan Murphy in the 100m backstroke Sunday night at the 2017 arena Pro Swim in Santa Clara, we caught up with two-time Olympian and six-time Olympic medalist (four gold, two silver) Matt Grevers.
After narrowly missing the 2016 Olympic team in his signature event, the 100m backstroke, by 0.48 seconds -- finishing in the dreaded third place at Olympic Trials -- Grevers stepped away from the pool for a bit, but never vowed retirement.
Along the way, Grevers and his wife Annie had their first child -- Skylar Lea Grevers -- in November of 2016.
With the birth of Skylar, priorities certainly shifted for Grevers but he found his way back to the pool nonetheless. That pool had a familiar face on deck with Grevers' longtime coach, Rick DeMont.
DeMont, more affectionately known as "Rocket," has been a mainstay on the swimming scene since he was a U.S. Olympian in 1972 at the young age of 16. DeMont won the 400m freestyle at those Olympics, but was stripped of his gold medal when traces of a banned substance ephedrine were found in a post-race urine test.
Finally in 2001, after 29 years, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) admitted that it had made a mistake in the handling of DeMont's medical information. DeMont had disclosed on his medical statement that he was taking the drugs Marax and Actifed for allergies to wheat and fur -- which the team doctors should have known contained banned substances.
Since then, DeMont has been roaming the pool deck in Tucson at the University of Arizona for 27 years -- 24 as an assistant/associate and three as a head coach -- where he led his swimmers to a remarkable 27 USA Swimming and NCAA individual national championships, as well as numerous national champion relays.
DeMont has also been a coach on two South African Olympic Teams (2004, 2008). Under his guidance, the South African men (Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend, and Ryk Neethling) -- practically an Arizona dream team -- won the gold medal in the 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
But on May 22, 2017 -- just a short two weeks ago -- the University of Arizona announced DeMont would be stepping down as head coach for undisclosed reasons. Instead of speculating on rumors for the reasoning behind the decision, we will instead focus on the legacy of greats DeMont coached during his time in Arizona.
Standing the tallest among all of those greats is 6'8" Matt Grevers.
Going into the 2017 USA Swimming Nationals/World Championship Trials, Grevers is unsure of what the results may bring but is joyfully along for the journey anyways.
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