In 2019, the 400mh were at their peak, with Warholm and Benjamin running historic sub-47 times and Samba still a strong contender. Despite the stacked field, a Brazilian teenager had a breakthrough season, lowering his PB and South American U20 record seven times. He capped it with a 48.28 for seventh at the World Championships in Doha, just 0.25 seconds off a bronze medal. The bronze would come, and that too in the Olympic Games – 2021 and 2024. The journey wasn’t easy.
Alison Dos Santos often wears caps or hats to protect the sensitive skin on his head from the sun. There are visible scars on his forehead, scalp, face, chest, and left arm. And in the RSG podcast streamed on August 28, he was asked about it. Answering the question, Alison Dos Santos shared that he was born in Sonabah, Sã