Having practiced equestrian jumping since age 8, Marcelo Chirico obtained numerous prizes and recognitions at both national and international level.
In Uruguay, he was National Champion in different categories every year from 2002 to 2010, adding simultaneously, in the same period, 5 Vice-Champion prizes. In Uruguayan equestrian sports history, he was the youngest —in 2009, at age 17— to win the National Championship in the main category (1.40m). In 2010, he won the National Championship again, winning the second place in 2011. He was also, in 2009, the only rider to win the National Champion title in the three main categories.
In 2010, being 18 years old, Marcelo Chirico obtained for Uruguay the first Olympic Gold Medal in an individual sport, at the first Youth Olympic Games, held in Singapore. The last Olympic Gold Medal for Uruguay was in 1928, for football, 82 years before.