Alison dos Santos
Alison Brendom Alves dos Santos (born 3 June 2000)[3] is a Brazilian athlete specialising in the 400 metres hurdles. He is a bronze medalist at the 2020 Olympic Games, the 2022 World Champion and the third fastest athlete in the history of the event, in addition to being a gold medalist in the 2019 Pan American Games. Dos Santos is currently the South American and Pan American record holder in the competition.
He was the 2022 Diamond League 400 m hurdles champion.
Early life
As a 10-month-old, a domestic accident left him with third-degree oil burns on his head and characteristic scars.[4]
As a child, Alison took a chance on judo. It was during this period that he earned the nickname Piu, but soon left the mat for athletics. At the age of 16, he was already competing among adults.[5]
Career
Dos Santos won a bronze medal at the 2018 World U20 Championships.
At just 19 years old, he participated in the 2019 Pan American Games, held in Lima, Peru, where he won the 400m hurdles event, breaking his personal record, and the South American under-20 record, with the time of 48.45. It was the fourth best time in the world at the moment, and with that, Dos Santos qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics. He had already won gold in the same event, at the 2019 Summer Universiade, weeks before.[6]
In September 2019, Dos Santos went to the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, where he won the 400m hurdles semifinal in 48.35, breaking his personal record again and going to the final with the second best overall time. The last time a Brazilian had reached the final of this event in the Worlds was with Eronilde Araújo, in 1999. In the final, he broke his personal record again, finishing in seventh place with a time of 48.28. He was just 0.25s from the bronze medalist.[7][8]
In April 2021, he broke his own Brazilian record again with a time of 48.15 in Des Moines, USA. On 9 May 2021, he broke the South American record that belonged since 2005 to Panama's athlete Bayano Al Kamani (47.84). Dos Santos obtained the 47.68 mark in the Mt.Sac stage of the Continental Athletics Tour in California (USA). On 28 May 2021, he again broke the South American record with a time of 47.57 in Doha, Qatar, participating in the Diamond League. This time placed Alison as third in the world ranking. He even topped the list in April. The time of 47.57 already placed him as 22nd best runner in the race of all time.[9][10] On 1 July 2021, in the Oslo stage of the Diamond League, he again lowered his own South American record, with a time of 47.38. This time placed him, at the moment, as the 15th-best runner in the history of the race.[11] He improved this record with 47.34, three days later, winning in Stockholm Diamond League stage.[12]

At the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Alison qualified for the final of the 400 metres hurdles, breaking the South American record with a time of 47.31.[13] In the final, he got the bronze medal, breaking the South American record again by a large margin, with a time of 46.72 (he lowered his time by 0.6 seconds). Both he, Warholm and Benjamin surprisingly lowered their times: Warholm lowered the world record by almost 0.8 seconds (45.94), and Benjamin beat the Americas' record also by 0.8 seconds (46.17). The event was the strongest in 400m hurdles history, with the three Olympic medalists getting the three best times in the history of the event, all beating Kevin Young's old world record (which had lasted almost 30 years and had only fallen a month before the Olympics). Alison became the 3rd best in the history of the race at just 21 years old.[14][15][16]
In April 2022, he made the second best Brazilian mark in history in the 400m, 44.54, an event that is not his specialty and what gave him the index to qualify for the Eugene World Championship (he would be a bronze medalist in the 400m with this mark, in this championship).[17] In May 2022 he won a gold medal in the Doha stage of the Diamond League with a time of 47.24, defeating Rai Benjamin.[18] In June 2022 he won a gold medal in the Stockholm stage of the Diamond League with a time of 46.80.[19]
On 19 July 2022, in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, he broke the South American record again and the World Championship record in the 400 metres hurdles with a time of 46.29, becoming world champion, defeating Warholm and Benjamin. It was the first men's gold in the history of Brazil in the World Athletics Championships, and he became only the second Brazilian in history to be the world champion in outdoor athletics. The first was the pole vaulter Fabiana Murer eleven years earlier in Daegu, South Korea. Dos Santos was 0.13s from beating Benjamin's Americas record and 0.36s from beating Warholm's world record.[20][21][22][23][24] At the Diamond Race final in Zürich in September, he became the Diamond League champion in his specialist event.[3]
Achievements
Personal bests

- 400 m hurdles: 46.29 –
Eugene, OR, 19 July 2022, South American record
- 400 m: 44.54 –
Walnut, CA, 16 April 2022
- 4 × 400 m relay: 3:04.13 –
Lima, 26 May 2019
International competitions
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | World U18 Championships | Nairobi, Kenya | 5th | 400 m hurdles | 53.98 | |
1st | 4 × 400 m mixed | 3:21.71 | ||||
2018 | World U20 Championships | Tampere, Finland | 3rd | 400 m hurdles | 49.78 | |
South American U23 Championships | Cuenca, Ecuador | 2nd | 400 m | 45.97 | ||
1st | 400 m hurdles | 50.56 | ||||
2nd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:09.90 | ||||
2019 | South American Championships | Lima, Peru | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 49.88 | |
2nd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:04.13 | ||||
South American U20 Championships | Cali, Colombia | 1st | 400 m | 45.78 | CR | |
Universiade | Naples, Italy | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 48.57 | AU20R | |
Pan American U20 Championships | San José, Costa Rica | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 48.49 | AU20R | |
Pan American Games | Lima, Peru | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 48.45 | AU20R | |
World Championships | Doha, Qatar | 7th | 400 m hurdles | 48.28 | AU20R | |
2021 | World Relays | Chorzów, Poland | 2nd | 4 × 400 m mixed | 3:17.54 | |
Olympic Games | Tokyo, Japan | 3rd | 400 m hurdles | 46.72 | AR | |
2022 | World Championships | Eugene, OR, United States | 1st | 400 m hurdles | 46.29 | CR AR |
Circuit wins and titles
- Diamond League 400 m hurdles champion:
2022[25]
- 400 metres hurdles wins, other events specified in parenthesis
- 2021 (2): Stockholm Bauhaus-Galan, Brussels Memorial Van Damme
- 2022 (7): Doha Diamond League (WL MR), Eugene Prefontaine Classic (WL), Oslo Bislett Games, Stockholm (WL MR), Chorzów Kamila Skolimowska Memorial (MR), Brussels, Zürich Weltklasse
Season's best
- 2017 – 53.82 (17 years old)
- 2018 – 49.78
- 2019 – 48.28
- 2020 – no competitions held
- 2021 – 46.72
- 2022 – 46.29
References
- "Alison dos Santos". Olympedia.org. OlyMADmen. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- Fraga, João (20 April 2019). "Alison dos Santos quebra recorde sul-americano sub-20". Olimpiada Todo Dia (in Portuguese). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
- Alison dos Santos at World Athletics
- Vecchioli, Demétrio (8 August 2019). "Aposta do atletismo Alison Santos e ouro nos 400m com barreira com folga". UOL Esporte (in Portuguese). Retrieved 23 August 2019.
- "Conheça Alison dos Santos, vítima de acidente doméstico aos 10 meses, e medalha de bronze em Tóquio". Terra (in Portuguese). 2 August 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
- Merguizo, Marcel (8 August 2019). "Alison dos Santos conquista medalha de ouro nos 400m com barreira com melhor marca da carreira". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese).
- Dilascio, Flávio; Roseguini, Guilherme & Dillon, Lorena (28 September 2019). "Paulo André para na semifinal, e Christian Coleman é campeão mundial dos 100m em Doha". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese).
- Dilascio, Flávio; Roseguini, Guilherme & Dillon, Lorena (30 September 2019). "Revelação do Mundial, Alison Brendom faz melhor tempo da vida e fica em 7º em final em Doha". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese).
- "Alison Santos quebra recorde e é 2º nos 400m com barreiras em Doha". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese). 28 May 2021.
- "Alison dos Santos bate recorde sul-americano dos 400m com barreiras". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese). 9 May 2021.
- "Warholm quebra recorde mundial, e Alison é 2º com recorde sul-americano". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese). 1 July 2021.
- "Alison dos Santos vence e bate recorde sul-americano nos 400m com barreira na Diamond League". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese). 4 July 2021.
- Conde, Paulo Roberto (1 August 2021). "Alison dos Santos vai à final dos 400m com barreiras; Paulo André fica fora de decisão dos 100m rasos". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese).
- Dilascio, Flávio & Conde, Paulo Roberto (3 August 2021). "Saiba quem é o medalhista olímpico Alison dos Santos, mais conhecido como "Piu"". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese).
- Conde, Paulo Roberto (3 August 2021). "Alison dos Santos conquista bronze nos 400m com barreiras nas Olimpíadas de Tóquio". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese).
- "Warholm smashes world 400m hurdles record with incredible 45.94 run in Tokyo". World Athletics. 3 August 2021.
- "Alison dos Santos faz 2ª melhor marca brasileira da história nos 400m rasos". Olimpiadatododia (in Portuguese). 16 April 2022.
- "Alison dos Santos conquista ouro na Diamond League". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese). 13 May 2022.
- "Hurdles records for Dos Santos and Bol". World Athletics. 30 June 2022.
- RESULTS - 400 Metres Hurdles Men - Final
- Alison dos Santos é campeão mundial dos 400m com barreira
- Brazil's dos Santos wins 400m hurdles world final, Warholm denied
- Alison Piu é campeão mundial nos 400m com barreiras em conquista inédita
- Alison dos Santos sets 400m hurdles World Championships record as Warholm fades in final
- Gault, Jonathan; Johnson, Robert (7 September 2022). "2022 DL Final Day 1: Kenyans Nicholas Kipkorir & Beatrice Chebet Kick to 5K Wins as Kovacs Moves to #2 All-Time". LetsRun.com. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
External links

- Alison dos Santos at World Athletics
- Alison dos Santos at Olympedia