Henk van der Grift

Henk van der Grift in 1962
Personal information
Born	(1935-12-25) 25 December 1935 (age 88) Breukelen, the Netherlands
Sport
Country	Netherlands
Sport	Speed skating
Medal record Men's speed skating Representing  Netherlands World Allround Championships 1961 Gothenburg Allround 1962 Moscow Allround European Allround Championships 1961 Helsinki Allround

Hendrik ("Henk") van der Grift (born 25 December 1935) is a retired Dutch speed skater.

At the 1960 Winter Olympics van der Grift finished 10th on the 500 m and fell on the 1500 m.^[2] Not satisfied with training facilities in the Netherlands, he lived in Norway for a while, working as a car mechanic. The superior training facilities in Norway paid off and van der Grift won silver at the 1961 European Allround Championships behind Olympic Champion Viktor Kosichkin. 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.^[3]

And van der Grift delivered: in what turned out to be his greatest year, he became the 1961 World Allround Champion in Gothenburg. 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 3.24 seconds of difference on the 10000 m).^[3]

His victory made van der Grift the first Dutch World Allround Champion in more than 55 years – Coen de Koning had been the last in 1905. As a result of his victory, he was elected Dutch Sportsman of the year (a title shared with Judo giant Anton Geesink)^[4] and he received the 1961 Oscar Mathisen Award.^[5]

In 1962, van der Grift became Dutch Allround Champion, but he did not manage to successfully defend his World Champion title that year – after three of the four distances, van der Grift was in second place behind Boris Stenin, but despite Stenin's bad result on the final distance and van der Grift overtaking Stenin, van der Grift still finished second behind Kosichkin. The following season, he fell ill and ended his speed skating career.^[3]

Personal records

Van der Grift has a score of 175.960 points on the Adelskalendern.

Tournament overview

Season	Dutch Championships Allround	European Championships Allround	Olympic Games	World Championships Allround
1954-55	HEERENVEEN 13th 500m 19th 5000m 20th 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(19th)
1955–56	KRALINGEN 30th 500m 20th 5000m 18th 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(24th)
1956–57
1957–58
1958–59
1959–60		OSLO 5th 500m 24th 5000m 12th 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(20th)	SQUAW VALLEY 10th 500m DNF 1500m	DAVOS 5th 500m 19th 5000m 5th 1500m 16th 10000m 11th overall
1960–61		HELSINKI 500m 7th 5000m 1500m 7th 10000m overall		GOTHENBURG 500m 12th 5000m 1500m 10000m overall
1961–62	GRONINGEN 500m 5000m 1500m 10000m overall	OSLO 500m 13th 5000m 1500m 8th 10000m 4th overall		MOSCOW 500m 8th 5000m 1500m 8th 10000m overall
1962–63		GOTHENBURG 10th 500m 29th 5000m 23rd 1500m DNQ 1000m NC overall(24th)		KARUIZAWA 19th 500m 38th 5000m 28th 1500m DNQ 10000m NC overall(30th)

• NC = No classification
• DNQ = Did not qualify

source:^{[6] [7] [8] [9]}

Medals won

Championship	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Dutch Allround	1	0	0
European Allround	0	1	0
Olympic Games	0	0	0
World Allround	1	1	0

Dutch records established

^[10]

Note: Prior to season 1967–1968 Dutch national records would be recognized only if skated in the Netherlands^[11]