Henk Grol


Hindrik Harmannus Arnoldus "Henk" Grol is a Dutch judoka.

Judo career

Grol competed in the 2007 European Judo Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in the men's under 90 kg, as a replacement for Mark Huizinga, who cancelled last minute due to personal problems.
He won gold in the men's under 100-kilo class at the 2008 European Judo Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. He was the youngest European Champion of that year, only 22 years old.
After a highly competitive race against Elco van der Geest, Grol ended up to be the 2008 representative for the men's 100 kg category for the Netherlands at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There he reached the semifinals, where he was beaten by Askhat Zhitkeyev from Kazakhstan. He went on to win bronze.
He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals, where he lost to Dimitri Peters of Germany. Grol went on to win the bronze medal beating Ramziddin Sayidov in his bronze medal match.
He competed at the 2018 European Judo Championships in Tel Aviv where he ended third.

Outside of Judo

After the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro he considered starting a mixed martial arts career and trained with Gegard Mousasi in Amsterdam. Eventually he decided to quit training MMA due to safety considerations.