When acting brought Katy to Los Angeles, it also opened the door to a dream that she didn't even know she had. Her prosthetist asked her if she had ever thought about running. Being a person who was born without legs, Katy had never run before in her life. But sometimes it takes someone seeing potential in you before you see it in yourself.
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Katy took on the sport as just exercise and fun but quickly got talked into competing in a track meet. She found herself standing at the starting line having never even been a spectator at a track meet, but when the gun went off, instinct took over and she came in first in that race. Little did she know, a Paralympic track coach was in the stands, saw what she did and an athletic career begin.
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Over the course of seven years, Sullivan traveled all over the world competing on the US Track team. At the Para Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2007, she became the first bilateral above knee amputee to compete internationally in ambulatory track in the world. A devastaing injury in 2008 ended all hopes of the Games in China but that just made the desire to represent the United States in 2012 even stronger.
Sullivan is a four time US Champion in the 100m, became one of the first bilateral above knee amputees to make it to the Paralympics on blades, set an American Record and finished 6th in the World in the London Paralympic Games.
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In 2016, a new chapter in her sports career began with her role as an NBC Sports Analyst for the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Katy was the color commentator for all of the ambulatory track events for the US coverage.