| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Erica Marie Sullivan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (2000-08-09)August 9, 2000 (age 25) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Sandpipers of Nevada | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Erica Marie Sullivan (born August 9, 2000) is a retired Americanswimmer. She received a silver medal in the 1500-meter freestyle at the2020 Summer Olympics after placing second and qualifying in the event at the2020 US Olympic Swimming Trials.[1]
Sullivan's father, John, a former swimmer for theUniversity of Wisconsin, died ofesophageal cancer when she was 16. In the aftermath, she dealt with mental health issues. “I'm proud of the mental health barriers that I got through, with my dad dying in 2017 and really hitting a rock bottom in 2018 from the stress of losing a parent at age 16 and having to get over theanxiety, thepanic attacks, thedepression, thePTSD, all that,” she said during the Olympic Trials inOmaha.[2][3]
Sullivan islesbian and is currently dating Austin-based activistIzzy Richards.[4] Sullivan's mother, Maco, isJapanese.[5]
Sullivan has aYouTube channel she started on August 4, 2014, and where she has published swimming-related content.[6] Her first video, publicly published on December 14, 2014, was avlog covering her team, the Sandpipers of Nevada, at the Junior National Swimming Championships in December 2014.[7]
Since 2020, Sullivan has produced an annualTwitter thread comparing swimming to films nominated forAcademy Awards for the year.[8]
In August 2018, she represented the United States at thePan Pacific Swimming Championships inTokyo,Japan.[9] She placed 5th in the timed-finals of the800-meter freestyle swimming a time of 8:26.27, 9th in the timed-finals of the1500-meter freestyle with a time of 16:16.07, and 14th in the heats of the400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:14.68.[10]
| 2020 Summer Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
 | 1500 m freestyle | 15:41.41 |
Sullivanqualified to compete at the2020 Summer Olympics in the1500-meter freestyle for theUSA Olympic swimming team.[11] At the 2020 Olympic Games inTokyo,Japan, she won the silver medal in the 1500-meter freestyle with a time of 15:41.41, just 4.07 seconds behind gold medalistKatie Ledecky, on July 28, 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Center.Sarah Köhler ofGermany took the bronze medal with a time of 15:42.91. It was the first occurrence of women competing in the1500-meter freestyle at the Summer Olympic Games.[1]
Sullivan competed for theUniversity of Texas at the 2022 NCAA DI Swimming and Diving Championships. She took third place in the Women's 500 yard freestyle in a 4:35.92 and second place in the Women's 1650 yard freestyle in a 15:45.94.[12][13]
