Im Jahr 1976 beendete der 23-jährige Flossenschwimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan einen Lauf, als er sah, wie ein Trolleybus in einen See stürzte. Er tauchte 40 Mal 15 Fuß tief in eiskaltes, verschmutztes Wasser, warf dabei ein Fenster aus und zog 37 Ertrinkende in Sicherheit. 20 überlebten, aber die Rettung beendete seine Karriere.

Context: it finished his career because the water was full of sewage and broken glass and he developed pneumonia and sepsis which lead to lung damage. This courageous achievement wasn’t initially recognised due to censorship laws surrounding accidents but he was eventually awarded medals and recognition after Pravda reported on it in 1982.

Fun fact: this wasn’t the first time he did something brave, a few years earlier he was on a bus that went out of control and he successfully steered it away from going off a cliff.

You need to delete a photo, because it has Russian letters.

What a legend. My mum told me this story, everyone knew about him back then.