Does knowledge of physics come in useful when you do cycling? This question may be asked to a person who is perfect at these two things. Krzysztof Łukasik, who graduated from the WUT Faculty of Physics a few years ago, has just won a silver medal of Europe in an MTB marathon.

Our graduate successfully ran in the MTB championship of Poland (unexpectedly he won it in 2020) and Academic World Championship (in 2018 he came second). Now in Jablonne in the Czech Republic he achieved the greatest success in his career.

The contestants competed on a 100km route. The fastest person was Fabian Rabensteiner from Italy – he covered the distance in 3 hours 53 minutes and 30 seconds. Krzysztof Łukasik reached the finish line half a minute later. He overtook, among others, Jaroslav Kulhavy, from Czechia, a former Olympic champion and vice-champion and world champion. This time the experienced cyclist got only the bronze medal. Over 100 contestants competed in the race.

– On that day ”everything worked” – says Krzysztof Łukasik. – From the very beginning the race went just as I wanted. In the key moments of the competition, on long uphill sections, I felt confident. I managed to avoid unwanted mistakes, which makes me very happy. The level of the competition was very high, all top contestants specializing in this type of MTB took part. Undoubtedly, the silver medal is my greatest success.

Let’s explain the issue we started with - does knowledge of physics come in useful when you do cycling?

– Professional sports is not an obvious career path for a Warsaw University of Technology graduate – says Krzysztof Łukasik. – However, my data analysis skills are useful in more in-depth analysis of training. At a certain level, details become important and during my training sessions I monitor more parameters than speed and time. Of course, studying at the Warsaw University of Technology has taught me to be persistent, which is one of the most important qualities of each sportsperson.