Shavarsh Vladimiri (Vladimirovich)[1] Karapetyan (Armenian: Շավարշ Կարապետյան; born May 19, 1953) is a retired former Soviet finswimmer, best known for saving the lives of 20 people in a 1976 incident in Yerevan.

Karapetyan broke down the partition separating the passengers from the driver's compartment, then took control of the steering wheel and turned the bus away from the cliff.

Karapetyan had just completed his usual finswimming distance of 20 km (12 mi) when he heard the sound of a crash and saw a sinking trolleybus.

[5] Despite the challenging conditions of sewage-infested waters and poor visibility due to silt, Karapetyan dived in and used his legs to kick open the back window of the trolleybus.

[2] The combined effect of multiple lacerations from glass shards led to Karapetyan's hospitalization for 45 days,[5] as he developed pneumonia and sepsis.

He became a household name in the USSR on October 12, 1982, when Komsomolskaya Pravda published the article on his feat, entitled "The Underwater Battle of the Champion".

[citation needed] During his career, Karapetyan became a Merited Master of Sports of the USSR and an eleven-time world record-breaker in finswimming.

[8][9][10] The main belt asteroid 3027 Shavarsh, discovered by Nikolai Chernykh in 1978 at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, was named after him (and approved by the MPC in September 1986).