Shavarsh Karapetyan, a champion Armenian Soviet swimmer, was on a bus in 1974 when the driver stopped to check the engine. The bus started rolling towards a precipice and Shavarsh rushed up, broke down the partition and steered it to safety.
In 1976, after his regular 20km daily swim, Shavarsh and his brother were jogging beside a highly polluted lake, when he saw a trolleybus plunge into the deep water. Shavarsh dived in, swam down 10 metres and broke the back window, slashing his legs. In a series of 20 dives he rescued 37 of the 92 passengers; nine more got out themselves through the window he'd kicked in. 20 of these people survived. His injuries and illness, including sepsis, meant the end of his swimming career, and he spent six weeks in hospital.
In 1985 he was near a massive sports complex when a fire broke out. Shavarsh helped the firefighters and went in to rescue many people; he suffered severe burns, and was again hospitalised.