I've seen some conflict over this clip being shared. It's a vulnerable moment for Maia, and obviously DL had no good intentions sharing it. At the same time, this sort of behaviour shouldn't be kept secret and should be exposed. Regardless, it's out there now, and Alex's behaviour is just inexcusable, and if that woman at the boards is indeed their mother, it doesn't feel like Maia has the necessary support for this comeback. Some people are trying to argue that it's just a sibling fight, but a "Sibling fight" to me would involve both parties being immature, yelling, throwing around insults stomping around, slamming on the boards etc. That would not have been impressive to see, but far less disturbing than Alex berating Maia for eleven and a half minutes while she mostly stayed still, you could barely hear her most of the time, and even when she did raise her voice enough to be audible she was nowhere near as aggressive. She mostly wanted him to talk to her more nicely and felt he was contradicting himself by saying it's "textbook" also that skating is not just about following instructions. This wasn't an argument or a fight, this was Alex verbally assaulting and abusing his sister.
It would still be completely unacceptable to speak to anyone like that regardless of their level of skill and experience, but it was incredibly striking to me how he seems to think himself above her, not just saying that he's the only reason they'll make it or that she's an idiot or has a weak mind, but in the way he talks down to her like an ignorant child who doesn't understand anything without him holding her hand. What medals and accolades does he have that she does not? What vast experience and training does he have that she doesn't? He's not treating her like a partner and an equal whose opinion is just as valid as his, he's treating her like dead weight he's dragging to glory.
Just because they're siblings doesn't give him the right to treat her that way. Siblings can abuse each other just like how romantic partners can, or how abuse can occur in the workplace, or between parent and child. There are many reasons she'd might find it worth it to attempt a comeback. I'm fairly certain they would have come back years ago if not for her health scare, and having her career cut short like that must have been devastating. She may have thought Alex matured in the past seven years. And a fairly major factor is that seven years ago they had a full proper coaching team as well as training mates, and Alex may have controlled himself a bit better and there were more parties to intervene. Now they're training largely alone, Alex is doing the coaching(which aside from his personal issues seems like a recipe for disaster regardless, one partner being in charge like that), they're lacking the support and infrastructure they're used to, and based on the actual skating they're not where they'd like to be at this point in the season to challenge for medals. That frustration and lack of safety net may have made Alex's tendencies worse than ever, though based on how Maia and their mother react it's still not out of the ordinary for him.
That video was an incredibly hard watch. It's going to be difficult to think of anything else if they do make it to competition, and any puff pieces that include Alex talking about how brave and strong she is for coming back from cancer are just going to be nauseating. I hope Maia considers if this comeback is really worth it and finds a good support system.
