The then 18-year-old Sulzenbacher achieved the first major success of his career at the 1995 Junior World Championship in Voss, Norway, with victory in the downhill. In the European Cup he had significantly less success in the first few years until he achieved his first podium on December 19, 1998 in the downhill from Altenmarkt-Zauchensee . Ten days later he made his World Cup debut on the downhill from Bormio and took his first World Cup point with 30th place. In his third World Cup downhill run in Kvitfjell in March 1999 , he already reached 18th place and a year later he was also in the top ten for the first time in Kvitfjell.
The 2001/02 World Cup season was Sulzenbacher's most successful: On December 8, 2001, he finished second on the downhill from Val-d'Isère and thus for the first time on the podium, a week later he was able to achieve this with third place on the Saslong confirm in Val Gardena . In January he reached fourth place in the downhill on the Streif in Kitzbühel and finished the season eighth in the Downhill World Cup. This winter he also started at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City , but only managed to finish 22nd downhill and 26th in the Super-G.
The following season was less successful, only at the end of the season he reached a tenth place in the downhill from Lillehammer . Even at the 2003 World Cup , he did not get past 19th place in the downhill. But in March he won the Italian downhill championship. The 2003/04 season was even worse than the previous one, with a 14th and 16th place in the Beaver Creek downhill sections being the best results. In the 2004/05 season he was able to improve again and reached the top 10 five times, at the World Championships in Bormio he finished 14th in the downhill and 20 in the Super-G. The next winter he fell back again and finished 18th at the Olympic Games in Turin . Also in the 2006/07 World Cup season he only achieved a top 10 placement, and he finished the World Championships in Åre with 14th downhill rank .
In the 2007/08 season , with fourth place in the Lake Louise Downhill on November 24th, he came closer to the podium than he had been for a long time and achieved two further placements among the top ten. In the 2008/09 season he was able to contest only one race and had to undergo an operation in January because of cysts in his knee. Sulzenbacher did not return to the World Cup circuit and ended his career.
Italy
