His parents are both poor peasants who farmed their family lands in 1980s China.
Even after Su later achieved national renown, his father continued to work as a security guard and his mother worked as a Nanny.
Su was first exposed to track and field training in middle school, after being scouted by his PE teacher who saw him touching the basketball board with ease while being only 1.50m tall.
His middle school didn't have any specialized sprint coach but a PE teacher.
Even so, he was a back-up sprinter doing mostly managerial preparatory work for the track team throughout and didn't get to compete until 9th grade.
Despite not having formal training, he ran a time (11.72) just 0.01 seconds slower than the best sprinter in the city district.
Su was passed on and deemed an untalented sprinter in numerous occasions by the coaches of the city-level track and field team.
It was also during middle school that Su met his life-long best friend and love of his life Yanfang Lin whom he later married.
Su's career started with his entry into the Guangdong provincial track and field team in China, known for its history of producing outstanding national-level Chinese short distance sprinters and warm weather year-round which is conducive to outdoor track training.
His first professional track coach and mentor Yuan Guoqiang was the first Chinese 100m national record holder in the early 80s at the start of digital-timing era and was a short (5'6) sprinter himself.
When Su's admittance into Guangdong Dong track and field team was met with initial resistance by other coaches, Yuan Guoqiang took special notice of Su's personality, stride frequency and stride tempo, whom other coaches easily passed on and overlooked for his supposed lack of talent due to Su's short stature at the time.
According to Yuan, Su was "methodical, professional, absolutely concentrated, and an intelligent runner. Few athletes I coached was as committed as he was to the sports".
1983
Su's personal best of 9.83 seconds makes him the 5th fastest man all-time in the history of 100 metres at the Olympics, the 15th fastest man all-time in the history of the 100m event, and the current holder of the 100 m Asian record.
Su's personal best in the 60 metres of 6.42 seconds placed him within the top six all-time in the event.
1989
Su Bingtian (born 29 August 1989) is a professional Chinese track and field athlete specializing in the 100 metres event.
, he is the only sprinter of non-African descent to run the 100 m with sub-9.90 and sub-9.85, and the first ever Asian-born sprinter to break the 10-second barrier.
Su was born on 29 August 1989, in Zhongshan village, Guangdong province, China.
2009
Su broke onto the continental scene with three straight wins in the 100 metres on the Asian Grand Prix series in May 2009.
He also began representing China internationally that year and shortly after the national games he won the gold medal over 60 metres at the 2009 Asian Indoor Games, running a personal best of 6.65 seconds.
He was selected for the relay at the 2009 Asian Athletics Championships and won a silver medal alongside Guo Fan, Liang Jiahong and Zhang Peimeng.
He took the individual 100 m title at the East Asian Games, defeating Japanese rival Shintaro Kimura.
2010
His first medal came in the 4×100 metres relay at the 11th Chinese Games later that year, where he helped the Guangdong team including Liang Jiahong and Wen Yongyi to the gold medal.
He equalled the Chinese indoor record in the 60 m in Chengdu in 2010, running 6.58 seconds.
At the 2010 Asian Games he won the relay gold with a national and Games record time.
2011
During March 2011, Su set a new Chinese national 60 metres indoor record in Chengdu with a time of 6.56 seconds.
He went on to establish himself as his country's top male sprinter that year: he won the 100 m title at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships in a personal best of 10.21 seconds, was the bronze medalist at the 2011 Summer Universiade, then competed at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu (running in the heats of the relay).
He ended the season by breaking the Chinese record to win the 100 m at the Chinese Athletics Championships with a time of 10.16 seconds, improving upon Zhou Wei and Chen Haijian's former best mark.
2012
In 2012, Su qualified for the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships, marking his first participation in an indoor IAAF World Championships.
Su subsequently reached the semi-final of the 60m at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
Later that year, Su also became a 100 m semi-finalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
He ran a wind-aided (+2.9 m/s) 10.04 seconds at the start of the outdoor season and ended it by defending his national title in the 100 m. With the Chinese relay team he ran national records twice that season, timing 38.71 seconds in May and improving to 38.38 seconds with Guo Fan, Liang Jiahong and Zhang Peimeng in the heats of the Olympics.
2013
His 2013 began with two 60 m national records in Nanjing, where he ran 6.56 seconds and then 6.55 seconds.
Zhang Peimeng beat Su's 100 m national record in May 2013, but Su quickly responded with a personal best of 10.06 seconds at the IAAF World Challenge Beijing.
Later that year, Su qualified for the 2013 IAAF World Championships, marking his first participation in an outdoor IAAF World Championships in an individual event.
On 10 August 2013, Su raced in the sixth heat of the first round in the 100 metres, subsequently qualifying to the semi-finals by clocking 10.16 seconds.
The following day, he was drawn into the first semi-final against former world champion Justin Gatlin.
Su was disqualified in the race due to his false start, thereby rendering him unable to progress to the finals.
2018
Su was a silver medalist at the World Indoor Championships in 2018, the gold medalist at the 2018 Asian Games 100 m, a silver medalist in the 4 × 100 m relay at the World Relays in 2015, and a bronze medalist in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
2020
At the 2020 Summer Olympics 100 m final, Su made history by becoming the first sprinter of non-African descent to enter Olympic 100 metres finals since 1980.
En route to his 100 m personal best 9.83 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Su ran the fastest 60 m split of all-time and the fastest 60 m ever recorded under any conditions with the time of 6.29 seconds.
