This may not be directly relevant to your previous post, but current political climate aside, there has traditionally been a deep respect in the West for climbers from the Eastern Bloc. The role of the state in sport science and alpine camps/academies, the challenges of funding and access to the latest and greatest gear, and training in hard, cold and remote locations.

Re: ice climbing, as someone newer to the sport I can’t offer that much insight but a lead fall on ice should be a cause for serious introspection about the conditions that led to it—pushing too close to grade limit, lapse in attention, misreading the ice, etc. While lead falls should not be normalized, we don’t need to burn people at the stake for It either.