Shavarsh Karapetyan is a legendary man. The feat of swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan

All his life he saved people: first he helped the team in the rank of multiple world champion, then he pulled passengers out of the trolleybus that had gone under the water, after taking people out of the fire. In real life, this man accomplished feats worthy of Superman and Hercules. Kerzhakov and Ovechkin, Kovalchuk and Arshavin can not even dream of such achievements in the most iridescent dreams. Nevertheless, today the name of Shavarsh Karapetyan does not say much about anything.

Evil joke

An elderly, heavy man ran across the Kremlin with an Olympic torch in his hand. It was noticeable that hundreds of meters of distance are given to him incredibly hard. Suddenly, the torch went out. Hurriedly the Federal Security Service officer from his cigarette lighter again lit the flames. The man continued to run the allotted meters, and then handed the baton. At this time, the global network has already exploded with malevolence, they say, some official wanted to take part in the relay of the Olympic flame and disgraced himself. Bloggers leaned over the symbolism of the flame lit from the portable device, and did not even bother to figure out with which person the Moscow wind played a cruel joke, and why he was among the torch-bearers of Sochi-2014.

The guy from Vanadzor

Karapetyan Shavarsh Vladimirovich was born in the Armenian city of Vanadzor on May 19, 1953. He was the first-born in the family of Hasmik and Vladimir Karapetyanov. The boy was named in honor of a relative who died in the Great Patriotic War. Shavarsha was introduced to the sport from his earliest childhood, and seriously he took it up in 1964, when he moved with his parents to Yerevan. Father wanted to give his son to gymnastics, but the coaches said that he will not go further than the master of sports, because the growth is too small. Then Shavarsh Karapetyan decided to set records in the classic voyage. And I must say, he soon succeeded. At the All-Union Olympics of schoolchildren at the age of sixteen he occupied only places in the third ten, but a year later he won the championship of the republic.

Sports achivments

Who knows, maybe the swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan would have blown up very soon at the Olympic Games, but non-sporting circumstances intervened. Disagreements of the trainers led to the fact that the young man from the republican team was dismissed as "unpromising". The 17-year-old guy was helped by the instructor of swimmers-submariners, Liparit Almasakyan. So Shavarsh left the classic voyage in the underwater. Technically, this kind of sport is more complicated (you need to dive in the fins for breathing or scuba diving), but visually for uninitiated viewers this discipline is not so interesting. Perhaps that's why scuba diving has not been included so far in the Olympic program. These circumstances caused the reason that only experts remember about the great achievements of Karapetyan.

Great victories

In a new discipline, a year later, a young man won silver and bronze at the Soviet Union Championship. This was a significant success, given that Soviet submariners were considered in the world as one of the strongest. However, Shavarsh Karapetyan did not stop there. Photos of the guy decorated the pages of all sports publications in August 1972, when, at the first European championship, he set two world records and received two gold medals.

From this moment until the actual completion of the career of the athlete will be only four years. He will be 17 times world champion, eleven times world record holder, thirteen-time champion of Europe. In his sport to twenty-three years Shavarsh Karapetyan turned into a legend. However, he preferred sports talent to save people.

Courage does not happen by chance

For the first time he saved dozens of lives in January 1974. Together with coaches and teammates Shavarsh was returning from Tsakhkadzor, from a high-altitude sports base, to Yerevan. The bus on the mountain road started to malfunction, and the driver had to stop for repairs. While he was busy with the engine, the vehicle suddenly rolled to the edge of the road, and below the gorge was a gorge. Seated closest to the driver's cabin, Shavarsh first oriented himself. Having smashed the glass wall of the cabin, he sharply turned the rudder to the side of the mountain. Then the specialists said that this decision in that situation was the only true one. So the young man survived himself and saved three dozen people. However, the main feat of Shavarsh Karapetyan was still ahead.

Torn from death

It was the usual morning of September 16, 1976. The athlete, along with trainer Liparit Almasakyan and his brother Kamo, jogged along the shore of the Yerevan Lake. Suddenly, a trolley bus full of passengers flew straight from the road into their water, and in a matter of seconds sank to the bottom. The accident, according to the official version, was due to a heart attack driver. The real reason was revealed much later: it turns out that the driver entered into a squabble with a passenger who wanted to get off at the wrong place. Disassembly of two too temperamental southern men ended tragically.

The trolleybus went to a depth of ten meters. Shavarsh Karapetyan took the decision lightly - he would dive and get people, and the coach and brother - to pull them ashore. The task was extremely difficult. In the Yerevan lake very cold water, and visibility - almost zero. The guy dived for ten meters, kicked out the rear window of the trolley and kicked off the dying passengers. He knew how they would sink, how they would die - he was pressured by this feeling. But when Shavarsh raised two, there was a certainty that people could be saved. Every twenty-five seconds a new man appeared at the top. Inhale, exhale, breathe in and out ... dive - catch - stand on the trolley - push off - lift - transmit ... breathe in and out, inhale-exhale ... And so - more than forty times.

Neo-Olympic legend

Subsequently, rescuers and doctors, who detailed the situation in detail, came to the conclusion that what Shavarsh Karapetyan committed, at least one more person on the planet could hardly have done it. His feat is akin to the exploits of heroes of ancient Greek myths. Even if he took one, two, three people out of the water, taking into account the conditions in which he had to work, this could already be called a fantasy. And Shavarsh has returned from the other world - you just imagine! - Twenty people! At the same time, he pulled out more of the injured from the trolleybus, however, unfortunately, many doctors could not save.

The guy who created the impossible, long dreamed of a cushion seat, which he grabbed during one of the dives, taking for a man. The swimmer understood the error only on the surface, and for a long time afterwards worried that by this someone had lost the chance of salvation.

Shavarsh Karapetyan is a national hero

He stopped diving when all the moral and physical forces were over. But before that he managed to hook the cable for the drowned trolleybus - the rescuers who arrived to the scene did not have aqualungs, but they could not repeat what the sportsman was doing.

After his feat, Shavarsh was in hospital. When striking about the glass, he cut his leg very badly, in addition received blood infection and bilateral pneumonia. The young man spent forty-five days on the hospital bed. After he was discharged from the water, he literally nauseated. Return to the sport seemed unreal. And yet he returned, again striking all. He returned to beautifully leave in 1977, setting his final, eleventh world record.

The feat is not for the sake of reward

On the heroic deed of Shavarsh Karapetyan, a large country did not immediately recognize - at that time they did not like to write about the catastrophes. And when the story was still publicized, tens of thousands of letters from ordinary Soviet citizens from all corners of the Union went to Yerevan with gratitude. On all envelopes there was a simple inscription: "Armenia, Yerevan, Karapetyanu Shavarshu". But what is clear to ordinary people, officials is not always clear. A great man and a great sportsman did not become a Hero of the Soviet Union , he was only awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor. But the Soviet astronomer Nicholas Chernykh on August 8, 1978 named in honor of the hero swimmer an asteroid he discovered.

Many of the passengers saved by Shavarsh Karapetyan have now died of old age. And he still worries because of the leather cushion of the seat that cost someone life. Now some of the survivors live in America, someone in Moscow, someone in St. Petersburg. Shavarsh says that he still maintains relations with some people, but he does not impose himself. At a meeting people try to thank him, present some gifts, and it is inconvenient for them to accept them.

Moving to Moscow

In Yerevan on February 19, 1985, a fire broke out in the Sports and Concert Complex - the pride of the city. The whole world fought with fire! Later, a volunteer was brought to the hospital, who was one of the first to rush out people from the danger zone, a volunteer who himself was burned, but saved several lives. They were again our hero - Karapetyan Shavarsh Vladimirovich.

The situation developed so that in 1993 the former sportsman was forced from Yerevan to move to Moscow. He had no propiska, no money, no apartment. However, the man did his best to survive. I got married. Wife Nelli learned about his feat on the Lake of Yerevan only from newspapers. Like the rescued themselves, like the whole country. Then, when suddenly it became possible to say aloud that trolleybuses are falling from the dams.

Shavarsh Karapetyan, in connection with his move to Moscow, explains that he never distinguished Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia ... He was a Soviet citizen, therefore for him all these republics are one homeland. In his honor, the Soviet anthem sounded eighty times, and he is proud of this, cherishes. "Russia is ours, Armenia is mine!" Says Shavarsh Vladimirovich.

Shoemaking Master

By education, our hero is an economist. Now he has his business - a shoe shop in the south-west of the capital, where six craftsmen are working, repairing a day to a hundred pairs of shoes. Many Muscovites know that Armenians are magnificent shoemakers, and they highly appreciate Uncle Shavarsh. Standing behind the counter, he personally takes in the repair of shoes, and if the work is many, then he himself sits down behind the machine. The workshop has a symbolic name - "The Second Breath". It was invented by friends who work together with Karapetyan from the very start of business to the present day. They say that Shavarsh has not changed at all - he is still struggling. But only now for their work. Fees, rent increases, taxes - the owner of the workshop has to solve the usual problems of a small enterprise. Shavarsh smiles: nothing is easy. To create a business in Moscow, he needed as much courage and energy as when he was pulling people out of a sunken trolley in Yerevan. But the multiple champion of scuba diving continues with joy in the eyes of every visitor to the shoe shop.

And yet the hero is not forgotten! More recently, Logos Film Company decided to remove the artistic tape about the feat done by Shavarsh Karapetyan. The film, already received the name "20 lives", is produced by Svetlana Dali and Olga Sinelshchikova. Information about who will play the role of a legendary person, while not, does not specify the date of the premiere.

A happy family

Shavarsh remembers that when he was young, his father told him that a man should choose a profession that would allow him to support children and his wife. He did everything according to his father's behest. He has a business, a wife and three children: a son and two daughters. The eldest daughter graduated with a red diploma from MGIMO, works at the Central Bank. The youngest studied at the PFUR, today she works in Russia Today, by the way, and she has a red diploma. But the son went in the footsteps of his father, is engaged in swimming and has good prospects in sport. Despite the still not very high rank, he was already taken to the reserves of the national team.

Shavarsh Karapetyan. Olympic flame

Self-sacrifice could not but affect the state of health of our hero. Hundreds of meters of the Olympic relay race for a sixty-year-old man proved to be a difficult test. However, as always, he managed to overcome all difficulties. But something happened that Shavarsh Karapetyan did not expect. The Olympic flame went out. Pogas in the hands of the man who least deserved such a fate.

Or maybe we just misunderstood everything? Maybe the torch did not go out, but bowed before the grandeur and courage of Shavarsh Karapetyan? After all, this heroic athlete and a real person disinterestedly gives people the fire of their souls, a fire that will never go out.