Kirstie Marshall grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Black Rock, along with her parents and two siblings, Sascha and Carey. They all started skiing at Mt Baw Baw, VIC - Kirstie when she was about four years old. 

From 1981 the Marshall family became regular skiers at Mt Buller and in 1987 Kirstie joined Team Buller - a Freestyle skiing team managed, amongst others, by Geoff Lipshut, the current CEO for the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia. Not long after, Marshall won the Victorian title and finished second in the national championships, a promising start to what would be an extraordinary career.

A Freestyle skier-exchange program in place at Mt Buller gave Marshall the chance to meet Japanese coach/athlete Takayo Yokoyama. The veteran skier was at the end of her career when she spent the 1987 winter in Mt Buller, and interested in becoming an international coach. The chance encounter saw Marshall being offered a 4-month scholarship in Inawashiro, the centre for Freestyle skiing in Japan.

Marshall went on to win the 1988 Australian Freestyle competition and decided to travel overseas and compete in the FIS World Cup. Despite being the only skier representing Australia in any of the Freestyle disciplines (Aerials, Moguls and Ballet) she soon managed to win her first World Cup medal in Tignes, France, in December 1989. 

Just six weeks later she was already on the top podium as winner of the Aerials World Cup event held in Breckenridge, Colorado (USA), the first of her 17 World Cup Gold medals. During her career Marshall won a total of 41 World Cup medals and the title of overall Aerials World Cup champion in 1992.

In 1992 Marshall also represented Australia at the Albertville Winter Olympics, where Aerials were included in the Freestyle program for the first time, but only as a demonstration sport. After one of many knee injuries which afflicted her throughout her career, Marshall returned to skiing at Lillehammer 1994, where she was also the flag bearer for the Australian Olympic Team. She finished sixth in the Aerials event.

In 1995 Marshall secured the first Australian medal ever at the Freestyle World Championships with a third-place performance at La Clusaz (France). Two years later, in Nagano (Japan), she did even better and was crowned Aerials World Champion, becoming the first Australian to hold a world title in any winter sport. 

In 1998 Marshall represented Australia at the Winter Olympics for the third time and managed to conquer her 17th and last World Cup victory in Altenmarkt (Austria), before closing a career interrupted by no fewer than twelve knee operations.

Since then Marshall served on the board of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia before embarking on a successful career in politics. She received an Australian Sports Medal in 2002 and a medal of the Order of Australia in 2003. As a tribute to her amazing achievements, she was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2010.