By Johannes Kaufmann
And today he also ignores the team sprint. This concentration on the essentials perfectly characterizes the Dario Cologna 2013. Its performance is stable at the highest level. And he has learned to focus on day X.
Last season Cologna made a leap in performance. He dominated the Tour de Ski and World Cup like never before. But because this took place in one of the rare winters without major championships, he had to wait until he could close the last gap in his impressive palmarès. This happened yesterday with the sovereign World Championship title in skiathlon. A particularly valuable triumph because Cologna realized it with the knowledge of a completely messed up 2011 World Cup in Oslo and the burden of being the favorite. He won in the style of a great champion. In Val di Fiemme, the site of his three triumphs in the Tour de Ski.
Since the meteoric rise to the top in the winter of 2008/09, Cologna has consistently embodied world class. Before the World Cup it was almost forgotten that he was on the verge of his fourth victory in the overall World Cup. International media representatives spoke to Cologna yesterday about Roger Federer. Cologna replied that he was playing the wrong sport. That’s right. Nevertheless, the comparison is not unreasonable. Cologna now shapes his sport with almost the consistency of Federer.
