Shavarsh Karapetyan, an eleven-time world-record holder in finswimming, saved 20 lives in 1976. While jogging, he witnessed a trolleybus crash into Yerevan Lake and immediately dove in. He repeatedly swam to the submerged bus, breaking a window with his legs to pull passengers out. He was hospitalized for 45 days with pneumonia and sepsis, ending his athletic career. However, he continued to help others, suffering severe burns while rescuing people from a burning building in 1985.