Kelly Curtis is breaking ground as a Black American skeleton racer.

Kelly Curtis cycled through a variety of jobs on her journey to becoming the first Black American skeleton racer at the Olympics.

“My favorite was background acting,” Curtis once told Air Force Recruiting Service Public Affairs. “I was a vampire on one show and nobody did a double take when I was walking around Magazine Street in New Orleans in my costume. It was just another Tuesday night there.”

Occasionally, as she juggled odd jobs and long Olympic odds, Curtis had to decide between buying dinner or securing another precious training run to sharpen her skeleton sliding skills.

The persistence paid off. Curtis is scheduled to break ground Friday in becoming the first Black athlete to represent the United States in her sport at the Olympics. Her debut arrives four years after Nigeria’s Simidele Adeagbo, who attended the University of Kentucky, became the first Black African woman to compete in the sport at the Games.

“I didn’t really have too many people to look up to in the skeleton world, but I did in bobsled,” Curtis said. “I’m standing on the shoulders of giants and trying to inspire the next generation.”

Curtis, 33, is also an airman in the United States Air Force. She ran track and field at Tulane University and Springfield College before switching to skeleton, a sport in which athletes rocket headfirst down an icy track.

She joins Katie Uhlaender, competing in her fifth Olympics, and Andrew Blaser on the U.S. team at these Games.

They are indeed a skeleton crew. The three athletes are the fewest the United States has sent to the Olympics in that sport since its reintroduction at the 2002 Games.

“I’m still not going to believe it until that green light goes for Race Day 1,” Curtis said.