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.

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).

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.