Olympic bronze medallist Alison dos Santos: "We are not seeing history, we are making history."

Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist Alison dos Santos is on a mission.

The Brazilian has moved to the United States as he tries to close the gap to Karsten Warholm.

Dos Santos went third on the all-time list in the historic Tokyo 2020 final which has gone down as one of the greatest races in athletics history.

Warholm clocked 45.94 to smashed his own world record with Rai Benjamin second in 46.17 and dos Santos crossing the line in 46.72.

Now the 21-year-old has left his homeland to train with "the best athletes in the world" ahead of July's World Championship in Eugene, Oregon.

Before leaving his former training base in Sao Paulo in early March, he told the Brazilian Athletics Confederation, "There are five or six athletes running really well. We are not seeing history, we are making history. I am very happy to be in the midst of this generation."

Dos Santos' stellar rise to the Olympic podium

After winning bronze at the 2018 U20 World Championships, the Brazilian made his name in the senior ranks the following year.

A strong junior campaign had been the plan but, when he broke 49 seconds for the first time in the World Challenge meeting in Braganca Paulista, he and coach Felipe de Siqueira had to raise their ambitions.

Four week later, Dos Santos triumphed at his first South American Championships a week before his 19th birthday.

Then came victory at the Summer Universiade in Naples in another new personal best of 48.57, a time which would have been good enough to make both the Rio 2016 and 2017 World Championship finals.

Ten days after that was his initial season target, the Pan American U20 Championships in Costa Rica, where he improved again to 48.49.

He was not finished there.

Dos Santos returned to Lima for the Pan American Games and ran another career best, 48.45, to take gold.

The fast-rising teen was second on his Diamond League debut in Birmingham behind Olympic bronze medallist Yasmani Copello before shifting his focus to the 2019 Doha World Championships.

Despite his lack of experience, dos Santos made the final and finished seventh in - what was until that point - the deepest 400m hurdles field ever assembled.

Warholm took gold from Benjamin with both men well under 48 seconds, with the youngster far from disgraced in seventh place in a new personal best of 48.28 which was just a quarter of a second behind bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba.

The pandemic meant he did not race at all in 2020 but, in his third race of 2021 he broke Bayano Kamani's 16-year-old South American record with a time of 47.68 as he ducked under the magic 48-second mark for the first time.

In an indication of just how strong men's one-lap hurdling is at the moment, dos Santos was only third in that race behind Benjamin and Kyron McMaster.

But he just kept on improving.

He went progressively quicker in his next three races: 47.57 in Doha (second behind Benjamin), 47.38 in Oslo (second behind Warholm), and 47.34 in Stockholm where he finally clinched his first Diamond League win.

After chasing Warholm home again in Monaco, dos Santos went to his first Olympic Games.

He broke his South American record again in the semi-finals in Tokyo as he clocked 47.31.

And then in the final, he ran 46.72 to take bronze ahead McMaster, Samba and Copello in the greatest 400m hurdles race in history.

Dos Santos looks forwards to 2022 World Athletics Championships

With Warholm the man to catch, dos Santos has made significant changes to try and get closer to the flying Norwegian.

Splitting his time between training at home in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, he and coach de Siqueira have worked with biomechanics experts from the Brazilian Athletics Confederation for the past five months.

He said, "We did a lot of comparative tests to analyse strength and power, and bone and muscle structure. I'm getting stronger.

"I returned to training in October, in Sao Paulo, and I want to get into my best shape for the 400m hurdles final at the Oregon World Championships. From now on we have to be creative and allow ourselves to take risks. The immediate focus is the World Championships.

"I have to repeat what I've been doing well, and I think I can be faster... improve at the start of the race and optimise where we have more difficulties."

At two metres tall, dos Santos can be slow to get going but he is able to use that long stride and finish his races strongly.

Now he has moved to North America where he will step up his attack on the Worlds, adding, "In the United States, I will be closer to the best athletes in the world and have the chance to compete, starting in the second half of March.

“We will compete next in Europe and return to the United States, for the 2022 World Championships. The goal is to pay more attention, focus 100 per cent on food, rest and training."

Dos Santos' journey from near-tragedy to hurdles star: "Today I am Alison."

When dos Santos was 10 months old, he nearly died in a kitchen accident.

Growing up in his grandmother’s house, the young boy knocked a pan of hot oil which spilled on him.

He and his grandmother spent months in hospital with dos Santos suffering third-degree burns which left permanent scars on his face, chest and left arm, as well as a large bald patch on his head.

Dos Santos' first sport was judo, but a childhood friend persuaded him to try athletics.

There were mental scars as well as the physical ones with his first coach, Ana Fidelis telling UOL Esporte, "He was so shy because of the burns that he only came out with a cap. He was dying of shame."

As dos Santos developed as an athlete, his confidence grew, and he soon ditched the cap he would wear in races.

After his 2019 Pan American Games triumph, he recounted his accident to reporters before telling them, "I improved and today I am Alison."