India, March 28 -- Heraskevych was shunned by the Olympics, then invited to the United Nations. He never expected that would happen.

The Ukrainian skeleton athlete was not allowed to compete at the Milan Cortina Games because of his plan to wear a helmet paying tribute to some of those killed following Russia's invasion of his country. He spoke on a panel at the UN on Thursday detailing why he still believes he made the right decision.

"I think it's important that we use this stage and talk about important things," Heraskevych said at the opening ceremony of Change the World Model United Nations, an educational simulation for thousands of students. "Sometimes it feels like, in all these hours of training, we really forgot about the over...