The Story Of Shavarsh Karapetyan, The Champion Swimmer Who Saved 20 People From A Sinking Trolleybus

Shavarsh Karapetyan’s Promising Young Career
Shavarsh Karapetyan long seemed destined for great things. Born in Armenia on May 19, 1953, he showed early promise as an athlete.

Encouraged by his father, Karapetyan first trained in gymnastics — but his coach said he’d started too late to become a champion. Next, he worked at becoming a swimmer — but lacked the necessary flexibility. Finally, Karapetyan settled on finswimming, where his strong build and limitless energy gave him an edge.

Shavarsh Karapetyan’s build and limitless energy made him a formidable finswimmer.

Finswimming — a sport that requires swimmers to race underwater with fins strapped to their feet — requires endurance and strength. For long distances, finswimmers would use snorkels or oxygen tanks. For short ones, they’d simply hold their breath.

Determined to make his father proud, Karapetyan trained rigorously. He ran up to 18 miles a day with a sand-filled backpack, jogged with boards strapped to his feet, and practiced holding his breath.

Soon, his hard work started reaping rewards. Karapetyan won gold at the 50 and 100-meter sprints at the 1972 European championships in Moscow, prompting a Soviet magazine to rave, “It’s safe to say we’ll see this young athlete from Armenia at many more major championships.”

Around this same time, Karapetyan also proved his fearlessness in the face of danger. He was on a bus in 1974, en route to a sporting center, when the driver got out to look at the engine. But the driver forgot to apply the handbrake.

As the bus rolled backward toward a gaping gorge, Karapetyan charged into the driver’s cabin and took control. He yanked on the brake — averting catastrophe.

Two years later, Shavarsh Karapetyan found himself on the edge of disaster yet again.

When Trolleybus 15 Fell Into Yerevan Lake
By 1976, Shavarsh Karapetyan’s athletic career had taken a sudden, painful turn. He’d been cut from the Soviet national team without explanation. It was, he reflected, perhaps because he young, because he’d been recently ill, or because he was Armenian.

On Sept. 16, 1976, the 23-year-old went to work out some of his frustration by running around the artificial lake in the middle of the country’s capital, Yerevan. Alongside his brother, Kamo, and his coach — and with a 45-pound bag of sand on his back — Karapetyan set out on a 13-mile run that would change his life forever.

While running, he suddenly heard a loud noise. Karapetyan looked up and saw that trolleybus number 15 had veered off the road and plunged straight into the lake. Witnesses later gave conflicting statements about how it happened, saying the driver had either argued with a passenger about making a stop or had been hit in the head by a pickpocket.

Continue reading…