Brazilian hurdler explains how track helped change his life

When the pan of scalding oil tipped and splattered across 10-month-old Alison dos Santos, his grandfather scooped him up, barged through the front door and sprinted to the hospital — a burst of speed and quick thinking that played a key role in saving the baby's life. The scars on his face, forehead, chest and arms from those third-degree burns are the permanent reminders of a day 24 years ago that the Brazilian hurdles champion doesn't remember, but one he can never forget.

When Dos Santos lined up at last month's World Athletics Championships, the 400-meter hurdles was arguably the single most stacked event over the nine days of racing in Tokyo — he was going up against world-record holders, Olympic gold medalists and fellow world champions.

These are the sorts of challenges he embraces from a sport he says gave him new life as a teen, when he was vulnerable and insecure about the scars that, until then, felt like they ruled his life.

"It was the environment, the friendship and the love they were able to give to me that helped me get through this," Dos Santos explained in a recent interview with the Ready, Set, Go pod-cast, speaking of the track and field community near his hometown of Sao Joaquim da Barra that embraced him. "I was in need of some support, but I was never able to ask for it. And they were able to give it without me having to."

Dos Santos grew up with the scars and the story, and said he often wondered, "am I different? Can I fix this? What can I do to solve this problem?" Adolescence and his teenage years made things worse. Even his friends would sometimes end arguments with some cutdown about the scars, "because they knew it would hurt me".

"They were just saying what they saw. They didn't understand what that could mean to someone," he said in another recent interview. "I had to go through some dark times, but I had to understand that I wouldn't be myself if I didn't have the burns."