^^ Yep, your take, which is reasonable, but obviously also not without biases. None of us are perfect. And once again, yes Aliona is human and imperfect. And as a fs champion competitive athlete, she is mind-boggling badass determined and single-focused. Few humans on the planet compete and achieve at such a level, which has both rewards and drawbacks.
I take Aliona at face value and I admire her accomplishments and I'm in awe of her legacy. The moments and the memories she's given to this sport with her partners are special and rare. The fact that she's indeed human and fallible makes her athletic feats all the more remarkable.
...
1) I love her
2) If she said S/H were copying her style, she's wrong
3) It's unsurprising that her coaching the Knierims didn't work out. I'm not saying that the Knierims were completely blameless, but it's not all on them as many were implying last year...She doesn't yet have the mindset to help a struggling pairs team...
IMO, you are reaching. Whether or not you 'love' Aliona has little to do with the rest of your thoughts.
We don't know that Aliona claimed anything about S/H 'copying her style.' In fact, there's no indication she said that. If a question was framed to Aliona about S/H's recent fp, and Aliona responded in any way regarding their program having some similarity to her and Bruno's Olympic fp, so what!? S/H have their own skating style, which doesn't negate them copying ideas, moves, musical themes, and/ or program layout patterns of other successful teams. I would suggest everyone take a deep breath and get the heck over it already. Pairs teams, coaches, and choreographers are and have always been inspired by each other and by popular trends happening in all the fs disciplines, and in the larger global culture. That's how the sport evolves!
Aliona coaching the Knierims has nothing to do with this conversation, nor did I see it brought up in the interview. So what you are saying and thinking is in your own head. You were not involved in anything that transpired between the Knierims and Aliona. From all available evidence, their collaboration was a learning experience for all involved that garnered benefits for all involved, no matter what difficulties arose.
The Knierims are better skaters, and Aliona has learned a lot about the coaching process and about how she might wish to approach coaching in the future. It doesn't matter what any of us standing on the sidelines think about what happened. Apparently, all involved are still cordial, and have grown as a result of working together. The intentions were good on all sides and the overall results were beneficial, despite the coaching relationship not ultimately continuing for whatever reasons.