Sullivan grew up in Lake Tahoe . He learned to ski at the age of three on a small gravel hill behind his parents' house. He contested his first race when he was seven. His talent led him to Squaw Valley , where he was accepted into the Mitey Mites program, a support program for young alpine skiers. In 1999 he succeeded for the first time with a third place in the downhill at the US championships to catch up with the top drivers of his association. The following year he won the bronze medal in slalom at the Junior World Championships in 2000 in Lac-Beauport, Canada . A torn cruciate ligament in his left knee, which he suffered on the last day of the Junior World Championships, slowed his further sporting development.
After his recovery, Sullivan had the two most successful years of his career to date. In the 2000/01 season he was the dominant driver in the Nor-Am Cup . He won the overall ranking of the racing series as well as the discipline rankings in the downhill and super-G. On December 7, 2001, he made his World Cup debut in the Super-G of Val-d'Isère , where he could not gain a foothold in his first season. Nevertheless, he achieved a great success with his debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , when he finished ninth in the downhill as the best driver of the US ski team. He closed the season with his first US championship title in the Super-G.
In the following seasons Sullivan established himself in the World Cup, but without being able to advance to the top ranks. Only in December 2002 did he achieve his first place in the top ten with sixth place on the downhill from Beaver Creek . In 2003 he was 17th in the Super-G at the Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz . In December 2004, a rupture of the left cruciate ligament, which he contracted during a training run in Beaver Creek, interrupted his athletic career. Despite his serious injury, he was back on skis seven months later. He fought his way back into the US ski team's senior squad and celebrated a successful comeback in January 2006 with 16th place in the Lauberhorn race and 14th place in the Hahnenkamm run . In December 2006 he again achieved his second place in the top ten of a World Cup race in Beaver Creek. Shortly afterwards he reached fourth place in the downhill run from Val Gardena and only missed the podium by a hundredth of a second. At the 2007 World Cup in Åre, he was unable to repeat this performance with the 28th downhill rank.
In the 2007/08 season , Sullivan finally made it to the top of the world. On November 24, 2007 he achieved his first podium in the World Cup with second place on the downhill in Lake Louise . He celebrated his only World Cup victory on January 26, 2008 on the downhill in Chamonix . In the Downhill World Cup, Sullivan was fourth at the end of the season. Sullivan achieved four top 5 results - for the first time in addition to the Downhill also in the Super-G - in the 2008/09 season ; In the winter of 2009/10 , however, he did not make it into the top ten in any World Cup races. At major events, the American did not get any top positions. At the 2009 World Cup in Val-d'Isère he was 25th in the downhill and 23rd in the Super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver . The 2010/11 season started very poorly for Sullivan with only one World Cup point in five races. At the end of December he suffered head and knee injuries in a fall during downhill training in Bormio, which is why he was unable to participate in any more races for the rest of the winter.
In the 2011-12 season, two 17th places were Sullivan's best results. On November 24, 2012, after almost three years, he again achieved a podium finish when he finished third on the Lake Louise descent. In the further course of the winter, however, he did not get beyond an 18th place. In the 2013/14 season, two 16th places were his best results, Sullivan was able to improve again in the winter of 2014/15 and was fifth on the Lake Louise Downhill, plus two more top 10 placements.
After leaving Kvitfjell on March 12, 2016, Marco Sullivan announced that he would end his active career at the end of the 2015/16 season. Since he was unable to take part in the World Cup finals in terms of points, the Super-G was his last race on March 13, 2016.
United States
