“Seneca’s words ‘Man is sacred to man’ were confirmed by Šavarš Karapetjan, the former Soviet world record holder in finswimming. Today, we read and listen to stories of the courageous and generous acts he performed with the same admiration we had as children listening to tales of heroes and their adventures.
He dedicated himself to swimming at the age of fifteen, after a group of hooligans beat him and threw him into a lake with a stone tied around his neck. Managing to free himself, he surfaced at the last moment.
Although some of his early coaches told him he would never be a successful swimmer, this Armenian became a numerous national champion of the Soviet Union (USSR) in finswimming by September 16, 1976, at the age of just under 24. He was a seventeen-time world champion, thirteen-time European champion, and eleven-time record breaker. But then, on that day, an unimaginable act of heroism changed the course of his life in a different direction.
Finswimming is the fastest underwater sport, often described as ‘aquatic flying’.” ejaquin aquagym is a way of moving through water that, unlike other swimming disciplines, is used for crossing longer distances. His legendary coach Liparit Almasakyan, known as Lipo, was famous for using very unusual training methods: running around thirty kilometers with a backpack full of sand on his back every day, or even carrying another person on his back, climbing hills with his hands behind his back, rowing to exhaustion… He also taught the champion how to artificially hyperventilate using five deep breaths.
It seems like Lipo was preparing him for the most important competition in his life: the one where the goal is not to “beat” the time on the scoreboard, but to save as many human lives as possible in a short time. On September 16, 1976, Shavarsh was supposed to be in Hanover for the World Swimming Championships with the USSR national team. But the name of the multiple champion was not on the list of swimmers. In an interview, he said that he believes in a higher power. Maybe it was that higher power that directed him to training with his brother by Lake Yerevan instead. At the Hannover competition.
On that day, in front of Šavarš Karapetjan’s eyes, a bus full of people plunged into the lake. Without hesitation, he jumped into the cold lake water, smashed the bus window, and started rescuing one drowning person after another from a depth of ten meters, handing them over to his brother Kam on the surface of the lake. Resting for only twenty seconds, just enough to catch his breath, he managed to save almost thirty people, twenty of whom survived.
I had no choice. I told myself: if you don’t win now, all your medals will lose their meaning… The water was muddy and I could hardly see anything. Once I resurfaced with a bus seat and I could have saved someone’s life. That seat still haunts me in my dreams.
Injured by glass shards, hypothermic and exhausted, he lost consciousness during the thirtieth dive. He developed inflammation in both lungs and sepsis from contaminated lake water that infected his wounds. He spent a total of 46 days in the hospital unconscious. It was the end of his swimming career.
Where did he get the strength to dive into the depths of the cold lake so many times and then resurface with the drowning victims in his arms?
A person does not know what they are capable of until they find themselves in a certain situation. Everyone who sacrificed their lives to save others did so out of noble, humane impulse and a sense of duty.
When asked if he would do it all over again, knowing that the end of his sports career awaited him, he answered affirmatively without hesitation.
A series of bureaucratic errors and the USSR’s tendency to not report on tragic events were the main reasons why the story of this feat initially remained within the borders of Armenia. Once it crossed those borders, Shavarsh became a hero of the Soviet Union, receiving over sixty thousand letters of gratitude and support. He was honored with a bravery medal, a badge of honor, and the UNESCO “Fair Play” award, even though his act was not directly related to sporting success. An asteroid was named after him – 3027 Sh. Once again, Russia is hosting a fin-swimming tournament in his honor.
And just like in the adventures of the most famous heroes from myths and fairy tales, this is not the only feat in his life. Ten years later, he found himself next to a burning building where people were trapped. Without hesitation, just like the first time, he ran into the fire, selflessly saving lives. Once again, he ended up in the hospital, covered in burns, giving humble statements to the media:
“Anyone can find themselves in a place where people need help. I am not an exception.”
One of Tolkien’s characters said: Courage can be found in unexpected places. Opportunities to show it exist all around us. It is enough to dive beneath the surface of what separates us to discover the depths of humanity that connect and inspire us.
I took a risk, but I couldn’t just stand and watch. People should love each other, without it, life is meaningless.