Duszyński said of Łódź 2022: "Of course, it will be important for sportspeople because it sets new goals and allows them to develop.

"I believe that sport has greater values than simply achieving a particular result.

"It is above all about motivation and showing hard work.

"We are biological machines and physical activity is essential for us.

"This is how evolution has shaped us.

"I think the European University Games 2022 will be an important point for athletes."

Duszyński helped Poland to win gold at this summer's Olympic Games in the mixed 4x400 metre mixed relay, combining his preparations with his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) dissertation at Łódź University of Technology.

He began higher-education studies at the Silesian University of Technology before transferring to the institution in Łódź, where he is studying for his PhD on protein crystallography at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences.

Studying protein crystallography and the knowledge acquired have helped with Duszyński's preparations for events, according to he mixed 4x400 metres relay Olympic champion.

"I think that any knowledge is useful," he said.

"Sport is a very interdisciplinary field.

"It can be approached holistically from many different sides.

"It doesn't work together directly, it's a field of science going into structural biology.

"We study very small molecules and their structures to understand life from the inside, from very small molecules.

"For me, it works with sport a little bit because I understand the biochemistry, the exercise physiology better and I can approach training better.

"That's what fascinates me about it all - that I can analyse and understand.

"For me, measuring my lactate after a workout is not just two numbers displayed on a monitor.

"I realise that there are immobilised enzymes on that strip that properly catalyse those reactions and allow to carry out the reading."

Duszyński said he "went to university so that I could stay in sport," before coach Krzysztof Węglarski advised him to move to Łódź, where he now lives with his girlfriend and they are "in love with it, we like it."

Duszyński also won bronze in the men’s 4x400m relay at the 2019 Summer Universiade in Naples, and two silvers in the relay at the European Athletics Under-23s Championships in Estonian capital Tallinn in 2015 and on home soil in Bydgoszcz in 2017.

The European Universities Games in Łódź are due to be held from July 17 to 30 2022.

The Games were staged for the first time in 2012, and the most recent host was Coimbra in Portugal in 2018.

The 2020 edition in the Serbian capital Belgrade was postponed to 2021 and then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.