Education
At the 1960 Winter Olympics van der Grift finished 10th on the 500 m and fell on the 1500 m.
At the 1960 Winter Olympics van der Grift finished 10th on the 500 m and fell on the 1500 m.
Not satisfied with training facilities in the Netherlands, he lived in Norway for a while, working as a car mechanic. This was the first Dutch medal in international championships in eight years and it made van der Grift one of the favourites for the World Allround Championships. On the 500 m during those championships, he finished second behind Soviet sprinter Yevgeny Grishin.
He then lost many points on the 5000 m, but he overcame that deficit by winning the 1500 m.
On the final distance (the 10000 m), he seemed to be losing his lead, surrendering one second each lap to Viktor Kosichkin. But van der Grift managed to skate his final two laps fast enough to retain his lead, narrowly edging out Kosichkin by a margin of just 0.162 points (equivalent to 324 seconds of difference on the 10000 m).
The following season, he fell ill and ended his speed skating career.