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

He spent the rest of his life living quietly. Karapetyan moved to Moscow and opened up a shoe company. But his countrymen never forgot him and in 2014 tapped Karapetyan to carry the Olympic torch into the Kremlin ahead of the Winter Games in Sochi. He proudly said that he was carrying to torch for both Russia and Armenia.

Now, decades after the rescue that made him famous, Shavarsh Karapetyan says that he wouldn’t change a thing. Diving into Yerevan Lake that day cost him his athletic career. But he would do it again.

“There was no other choice,” he said. “I knew that it wouldn’t be right if the world’s fastest underwater swimmer was there and didn’t even try to help. Nature and humanity would have judged me. God probably would have judged me.”