Profile | Winter Olympics: who is Su Yiming, China’s teen snowboarding phenom and former child actor who trains ‘320 days a year’ and holds multiple world records?
- From starring in ‘The Taking of Tiger Mountain’, to completing world-first jumps with Eileen Gu, Su has become the face of Chinese snowboarding
- ‘I am not afraid of any challenge,’ Su says ahead of debut Games, hoping to perform well enough to ‘let our national anthem be played around the world’
The first-and-only Chinese snowboarder to win a World Cup big air title, and the first rider on the planet to land 1800s two ways in FIS competition, Su Yiming has been touted as a serious Beijing 2022 Games big air and slopestyle medal hope.
Even more impressive is the 17-year-old “snowboarding genius” achieved both feats in the past two months, appearing to be peaking at the perfect time for his Olympics debut.
From spending 320 days a year training in the mountains, to starring as a child actor in a Hong Kong-directed film, to making history with fellow mainland snow-based star Eileen Gu Ailing, here’s what you need to know about the teenager teammates call “Big Brother Ming” for his comparative expertise on the snow.
Biography
Su Yiming was born on February 18, 2004 in Jilin City, Jilin Province, to snowboarding-loving parents Su Qun and Li Lei. Su recalls them taking him to his first snowboarding class aged four – a “love at first sight” moment. Riding goofy, he began to show promise on the slopes within three years.
