Sometimes sports reaction and ingenuity become the key to salvation in stressful life situations. The most famous case of the manifestation of these qualities in the face of a disaster is rightly considered the feat of the Soviet swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan, who saved 46 people from a sinking trolleybus in Yerevan.
However, there are also less notorious stories that are not talked about much. In one of them, the main protagonist was the Russian handball player Konstantin Igropulo.
There were literally centimeters left before the tragedy.
FRESH CAREER
Igropulo began playing handball in his native Stavropol. During his school years, the boy was not known for his hard work, but Kostya became interested in this extraordinary sport. He not only went to all the training sessions, but also regularly attended the matches of the local team Viktor-SKA, hoping to one day play at a professional level.
Already at the age of 16, Igropulo went to play in his historic homeland, for the Panellinios club. Together with the team he became champion of Greece and even participated in the Champions League. However, Kostya was drawn to Russia and, after playing abroad for three years, he returned.
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In 2005, Igropulo signed for one of the country’s leading handball clubs: Chekhov’s Bears. And three years later, the Russian already shone at the Beijing Olympic Games, where he scored 36 goals. Then there were several business trips abroad: Barcelona, Füchse Berlin, Danish Kolding, Belarusian Meshkov-Brest. And almost everywhere the athlete managed to take trophies. He has won championships in Russia, Greece and Spain, as well as victories in the Champions League and European Cup Winners’ Cup. Igropulo also finished his career abroad: his last club was Polish club Wisla.
Now Konstantin no longer plays. At 38 years old, he is part of the coaching staff of his former club, Barcelona. Igropulo has held this position since 2022.
INCREDIBLE RESCUE
While still a player, in 2016, Igropulo and his family ended up in Sochi. An event occurred in the Galaktika cultural center in Krasnaya Polyana that made Konstantin one of the main heroes of the Russian media space for several days.
The Russian champion rescued a drowned man from the other world. The boy’s heart no longer beats.
Igropulo was walking with her daughter downtown when she suddenly saw a terrible image. A frightened girl was hanging from the outside of the escalator, holding on to the railing. She grabbed onto the handrails below and for some reason didn’t let go when the escalator took her up. The handball player got his bearings instantly.
“I quickly put my daughter on the floor and started yelling at people to press the off button on the escalator, because she wouldn’t have time to reach it.” People were a little dumbfounded. The girl held on until the last moment, until the tape dragged her and pushed her towards another escalator, where she could no longer continue. And she fell. To be honest, I thought: well, a boy and a boy. I grabbed it, but it turned out to be very difficult. She almost fell out of my hands. The girl flew while she was trapped against this wall, upside down, so it was inconvenient to catch her, Igropulo told TV channel 360.
RIA Novosti
Konstantin admitted that he never knew the girl’s name because he was under stress. The father of the rescued boy turned out to be a priest. He promised to pray for the athlete for the rest of his life.
Igropulo said that while he was catching the girl, he slightly injured his shoulder. However, the injury disappeared after a few days. By the way, the incident was a shock not only for the champion himself, but also for his family.
“My daughter, who is not yet two years old, was also scared. She was nearby, also watching all this. The fallen girl was dressed in pink, like mine. From afar, my family thought she was our son flying from above. They were also doubly scared. But nothing, everything ended well, I took the girl to her parents,” channel 360 quotes Igropulo.
