For years, Lodz University of Technology has been one of the best technical universities in Poland in terms of education. The university also successfully combines science and sport, which is one of the ideas behind the European Universities Games, to be held in Lodz in July this year. The main host of this event is Lodz University of Technology. Our university, which has a well-developed sports infrastructure, stages many national and international events. Its portfolio includes the European Universities Volleyball Championships, the Polish Water Jumping Championships or the Polish Winter Swimming Championships in the Sports Bay of TUL. It is no coincidence that Lodz University of Technology is the organizer of the European Universities Games 2022.
Among the students and graduates of Lodz University of Technology there are world and European champions in various disciplines, which proves that the university offers great opportunities to develop your passion and sports career.
Let’s take a look at the profiles of our champions and their sporting achievements on European and world arenas.
Just a few weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo nobody gave the Polish relay athletes a chance to win a medal. In fact, press headlines were screaming that for the first time in 29 years the Polish relay team would not go to the Games. However, within a month our athletes managed to improve their result by as much as 4 seconds, and during the Olympic finals in the mixed 4×400 metres relay they won the gold medal. After the successful run for the Poles, Kajetan Duszyński has been on the lips of the whole world, as he finished the winning relay in beautiful style, in perfect form. The athlete of AZS Lodz is a PhD student at Lodz University of Technology. His adventure with sport started with jogging in the park. Later he trained in a sports gymnasium in Siemianowice Śląskie. He moved to Lodz University of Technology from the Silesian University of Technology. In Lodz, in the colours of AZS he started to win his first medals. Kajetan Duszyński won his first medal, a silver one, in 2015 at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn, together with the 4×400 metre relay. Two years later, he ran for his second silver at the 2017 European Athletics U23 Championships in Bydgoszcz. He is also the 2019 bronze medallist at the Universiade in Naples.
From the Olympic Games in Japan, Kajetan Duszynski returned in excellent form. Another opportunity to showcase his great skills came quickly. In mid-August 2021, the athletes competed in the 4th Wiesław Maniak Memorial in Szczecin. Kajetan Duszyński reached the finish line with a time of 45.31, beating his personal best.
Kajetan is a Biotechnology graduate of Lodz University of Technology. He is writing his doctoral thesis on protein crystallography at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences.
Kajetan Duszyński was joined at the Olympic Games in Tokyo by Mateusz Rzeźniczak, Occupational Safety Engineering at the Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering at TUL. The road to the Olympics for the RKS Lodz athlete was paved by: the European team championship with the Polish national team, Polish senior vice-championship at 400 metres and Polish academic vice-championship, also at 400 metres. Despite his young age, Mateusz Rzeźniczak has won a bronze medal at the European Under-20 Championships in the 4×400 metre relay. He is also a finalist of the 2018 European Championships in the 4×400 metre relay, a vice-champion of Poland in the 400 metre and a multiple medallist of the Polish Championships in the junior and youth categories.
Adam Kszczot, in turn, specialises in the 800-metre run – a multiple medallist at the European Championships, the European Indoor Championships, the World Championships and the World Indoor Championships. Adam Kszczot, who comes from Opoczno, made his appearance at an international event in 2007 by winning the bronze medal at the European Junior Championships. In 2011, he secured the gold medal at the European Indoor Championships in Paris. Three years later he ran for the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Sopot. In 2017, at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade, he won gold in the 800m run. One can write much and long about Adam Kszczot’s sporting successes. Only at the senior Polish Athletics Championships in the 800 metres run he won as many as 11 gold medals in total.
She graduated from Lodz University of Technology with a degree in Engineering Management.
If not karate, she would train judo, just like her dad. She stood on the mat for the first time at the age of 9. Dorota Banaszczyk is another sportswoman, whose intensive trainings did not prevent her from studying. The athlete of the Olimp Club from Lodz studies Biochemical Engineering at Lodz University of Technology. In 2017, she represented Poland at the European Youth Championships, but 2018 turned out to be a breakthrough year in her sporting career, when she won the gold medal at the Senior World Championships in Madrid, in the individual kumite competition, in the 55 kg category. She is the first Polish woman to date to stand on the world championship podium in Olympic karate.
In the qualification for the Olympic Games in Tokyo Dorota Banaszczyk took the fourth place, and only the first three places guaranteed her participation in the Games. However, this did not discourage her. On the contrary, it motivated her to train even harder on the mat. At the end of 2021 Dorota won a gold medal at the Polish Olympic Karate Championships in Lodz (Individual Kumite Women – 61 kg).
Dorota Banaszczyk’s sport friend is Kinga Harast. The greatest success of the athlete of the Harasuto Karate Club is the bronze medal at the European WKF Championships Aalbork Denmark 2019 in the women’s U21 category. Kinga has been training karate for most of her young life. She has been successful at home and abroad for 14 years and already has 25 Polish Championship titles in kumite and kata and kata of juniors, youths, seniors and Polish Academic Championships in her collection.
Kinga Harast graduated from the Faculty of Management and Production Engineering at Lodz University of Technology. Currently, she is continuing her education at Lodz University of Technology, majoring in Master of Business Studies.
She won the Polish Senior Championship in Olympic archery and team medals at the World Championships. At home she paints, creates beautiful embroideries and runs a Facebook page “Śmiała Sztuka”. This is about Magdalena Śmiałkowska – a talented archer, a student of Architecture at Lodz University of Technology, who combines sports perseverance with the soul of an artist.
Magda has won a bronze medal in the mixed category at the European Championships 2021 and the gold medal at the International Antalya Challenge 2020, and in her discipline she is the highest ranked Polish woman in the world.
Sylwester Bednark has also managed to combine education with sport. In 2009 alone, this athlete of RKS Lodz won the title of European Youth Athletics Champion in high jump, in Kaunas, won a gold medal at the Polish National Championships in Spała and a bronze medal at the World Championships in Berlin. Meanwhile, in 2017 he set a personal best of 2.33m. In the same year he won the title of European Indoor Champion. Sylwester Bednarek is a graduate of management at the Faculty of Organisation and Management of Lodz University of Technology.
Another pride of Lodz University of Technology is Aleksandra Bednarek, the first Polish woman to win the triple crown in open water swimming. Recently, she swam across the English Channel. She covered a distance of over 40 kilometres.
Aleksandra Bednarek crossed the English Channel in 13 hours and 17 minutes. Thus, the young swimmer joined the group of 12 Poles who managed to do it. She is also the first Polish woman with the triple crown in open water swimming. Three years ago, she swam across the Catalina Channel and around Manhattan Island. All she needed for the crown was to cross the English Channel. One of Aleksandra Bednarek’s recent successes is a bronze medal in the 50 m classic style in the 18-24 age category during the 4th World Ice Swimming Championships in Głogów.
Filip Wypych, an athlete of AZS Lodz, studied at the Faculty of Organisation and Management at TUL. He is a bronze medallist in the 4×50 m freestyle relay at the 2017 European Short Course Championships in Copenhagen. In 2016, at the European Championships in London, he took 13th place in the 50m freestyle. A few months later he represented Poland at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
EYOF bronze medallist, European Championships medallist, eighth place at the World Championships, multiple Polish champion and Polish record holder – these are Marcel Wągrowski’s achievements in swimming. Marcel Wągrowski is a student of Management and Production Engineering at the TUL.
With such a team of sports stars from Lodz University of Technology, EUG 2022 will certainly be a high-profile event not only in Poland but also in Europe. The medallists from the Lodz University of Technology have managed to combine demanding studies with sport, while the EUG 2022 organising committee will prove in July that academic sport is an investment in the future.
