On September 16, 1976, Shavarsh Karapetyan, a world-champion finswimmer, was finishing a 13-mile run in Armenia when he heard a loud noise. A trolleybus had fallen off a dam and into Yerevan Lake. At 23 years old, Shavarsh immediately ran to the scene, took off his clothes, and jumped into the dirty water to help save as many people as he could.
Even though he couldn’t see well in the water, Shavarsh swam 15 feet down to reach the bus. He found that there was no open window, so he kicked the back window out, hurting his legs in the process. For the next 20 minutes, Shavarsh saved 37 people, 20 of whom survived. Nine others escaped through the broken window.
Shavarsh’s bravery left him with damaged lungs after he got pneumonia. He spent three weeks in the hospital before he could walk again. The next year, he competed in two final races, winning a gold medal and setting his 11th world record before retiring for good.
Posted by Sr. Johanna Laura Moseley