DeMont, a four-year All-American, began his collegiate swimming career at the University of Washington from 1973-75.As a freshman at UW, he finished second in the 1650 freestyle and fourth in the 400 individual medley at the NCAA Championships. A two-year and eight-time All-America selection at UA, DeMont swam for the Wildcats from 1977-79.
DeMont is a former world record holder in the 1500m freestyle (1972), the 400m freestyle (1973) and the 4x100 freestyle relay (1977). He collected numerous titles during his swim career, including National, Pan-American, World and Olympic champion. Following his senior year in high school, he was named World Swimmer of the Year. DeMont also pioneered negative split swimming (swimming a faster second half of a race than the first).
At the 1972 Olympic Games, DeMont was stripped of a gold medal in the 400m freestyle, when it was discovered he had unknowingly taken asthma medication containing the banned drug ephedrine. The next year, at the World Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, DeMont erased all doubts of his greatness with an unprecedented performance. He swam a world record in the 400m free and, in the process, became the first man in history to swim that race in less than four minutes.
To this day, he is still struggling to regain the medal from the International Olympic Committee. DeMont was rewarded for his athletic accomplishments in 1990, as he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Long considered a world-renowned sprint freestyle coach, DeMont has been the subject of feature stories and up-and-coming swimming technique articles in numerous publications, such as Swimming World, Swim Technique and Splash magazines.
In the late 1980s, DeMont was inducted into the World Swimming Hall of Fame. During his tenure with the UA program, he has coached an amazing 22 U.S. Swimming and NCAA individual national champions, as well as numerous national champion relay squads. In September of 1999, DeMont was inducted into the University of Arizona Athletic Hall of Fame and in April 2008 he was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
DeMont is also an artist whose paintings have been shown in local and national galleries, and some of his work can be seen on the walls of offices in Arizona's athletics department. DeMont has three daughters: Angela, Tierra and Jordan, one being a UA alum. He and his wife, Carrie, reside in Tucson.