In the summer of 1976, a bus carrying passengers veered off its path and plunged into Lake Yerevan in Armenia, which was then part of the Soviet Union. As onlookers watched in horror, a 23-year-old young man named Sharash Karapetian jumped into the water with a single goal: to rescue as many trapped passengers as possible. He dove into the submerged bus, managed to break one of the windows with his feet, and began pulling desperate passengers out one by one to safety in a rescue operation that lasted about 20 minutes without interruption. After successfully completing this humanitarian mission, he was identified as Sharash Karapetian, one of Armenia’s swimming heroes, who later became known for repeatedly risking his life to save strangers.

Sharash Karapetian’s life was filled with athletic and humanitarian achievements. Born on May 19, 1953, in Armenia, he was predicted to become a successful athlete from a young age. Encouraged by his father, Karapetian initially began his athletic career in gymnastics. However, his coach told him he started too late to become a champion, leading him to switch to swimming. Lacking flexibility, he ultimately focused on fin swimming, due to his strong physique and boundless energy. Fin swimming requires swimmers to wear fins on their feet and cover long distances, often underwater, which necessitates the use of oxygen tanks for longer distances or breath-holding for shorter ones.

Determined to honor his father, Karapetian trained rigorously, running up to 30 kilometers daily with a sand-filled backpack and practicing with fins attached to his feet. He also trained to hold his breath for extended periods. His hard work paid off, and he participated in and won numerous championships, including the European Championship in Moscow in 1972, where he won gold medals in the 50m and 100m events. Soviet magazines predicted he would soon become a world champion in the sport and win major titles for the Soviet Union.

During this period, Karapetian proved to be not just a sports hero but also showed great courage in facing danger. In 1974, while on a bus heading to a sports center, the vehicle experienced mechanical issues. When the driver stepped out to inspect the engine, he forgot to apply the handbrake, causing the bus to roll backward into a narrow passage. Fortunately, Karapetian quickly intervened, applied the handbrake, and prevented a potential disaster. Two years later, his life took a sudden and painful turn when he was removed from the Soviet team, possibly due to recent illness or his Armenian ethnicity. Despite this setback, he faced another crisis and demonstrated once again that he was a true hero.

On September 16, 1976, while jogging around the artificial lake in Yerevan to relieve his frustration, Karapetian, accompanied by his brother and coach, heard a loud noise. Looking around, he saw a bus that had veered off the road and fallen directly into the lake. Witnesses later gave conflicting accounts of the incident, suggesting the driver may have argued with a passenger or been injured by a pickpocket. Regardless of the cause, Karapetian rushed to the lake, took a deep breath, and dived into the water. He swam down to the submerged bus, managed to break one of the rear windows with his foot, and entered the bus to rescue a passenger.

Karapetian recounts that the most challenging moment during the rescue was breaking the bus window, which caused severe cuts to his leg. Despite the intense pain, he focused on the task at hand. He made around forty trips back and forth, rescuing as many people as possible. He pulled them to the surface, handed them over to his brother, who remained on the surface to assist, and continued until rescue workers begged him to stop. Exhausted, he emerged with only a cushion and realized he was feeling disoriented and lacking focus due to low oxygen. He even had nightmares about the cushion because he desperately wanted to save another person.

In the end, Karapetian managed to rescue 37 people from the lake. Twenty survived due to his direct intervention, and nine others managed to escape through the broken window. After completing his rescue efforts, his leg wounds were treated, and he returned home. That evening, his temperature rose, and he began experiencing convulsions. His family doctor transported him to the hospital, where he spent several days in intensive care due to pneumonia and blood poisoning from the cold, contaminated water and leg wounds. Despite his survival, it was evident that his athletic career was over. It took three weeks for him to walk again. Remarkably, despite his heroism, the Soviet citizens did not learn of the story until years later. Although some journalists wanted to cover the event, it was not permitted because, in the Soviet Union, buses were not supposed to fall into water.

Despite attempts to return to swimming, the accident caused permanent damage to his respiratory system, and he developed an aversion to water. Nevertheless, he participated a few more times, setting a world record in the 400m at the USSR Championships and winning gold and bronze medals at the European Championship in Hungary. Karapetian retired at the age of 24, leaving behind a record of achievements, including 11 world records, 17 world titles, 13 European titles, and seven Soviet championships. His true heroism, however, was the bus accident, which remained unknown until 1982 when a journalist covering a swimming competition wrote about it in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” in Moscow. Although the article did not mention the number of casualties, it highlighted Karapetian’s bravery.

Following the publication, Karapetian became a Soviet hero, awarded the Order of Honor, and had an asteroid named after him. He received tens of thousands of letters from Soviet citizens expressing their appreciation for his actions. Although he could have rested on his laurels, in 1985, when a fire broke out at a sports and concert complex in Yerevan, he bravely entered the flames to rescue those trapped inside, continuing his legacy of heroism. He later lived quietly in Moscow, opened a shoe company, and was honored by his countrymen. In 2014, he was celebrated by carrying the Olympic torch to the Kremlin before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, proudly stating he carried the torch for both Russia and Armenia.