Torsten Sanders grew up in Wesel and began his career as a high jumper at Weseler TV . In August 2011 he won the bronze medal at the German Youth Championships in Jena with 1.98 meters in the high jump. In the further course of the year he improved his top performance in the high jump to 2.04 meters. In January 2012 he was voted Wesel Sportsman of the Year 2011. In 2012 he increased to 2.07 meters at the German Youth Championships and became German runner-up. A week later, he also appeared for the first time in the national championships in the U-23 age group and finished fifth with 2.05 meters. In July 2013 he competed in the German Athletics Championships 2013 in Ulm and finished sixth in the high jump. In the same year he was ninth at the U-20 European Championships in Rieti, Italy.
At the end of April 2014, his previous coach Roman Buhl retired, whereupon Hans-Jörg Thomaskamp became his new coach. Almost at the same time, Sanders suffered a torn ligament in his foot, from which he was able to recover within a few weeks. At the German U23 championships in 2014, which were held in the Weseler Auestadion , he won the gold medal in front of a home crowd with a new personal best of 2.17 meters. In September 2014 he began an apprenticeship at Bayer AG and shortly afterwards his move to TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen was announced at the beginning of 2015. In 2015, he increased his best performance to 2.22 meters and entered the U23 European Championships in 2015 in Tallinn , Estonia , but missed the final there with 2.15 meters.