JOE KLIM
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF TRACK & FIELD
PENN
Joe Klim joined the Penn track & field programs as an assistant coach ahead of the 2012-13 season, specializing in jumps and multi-events. In March 2021, he was elevated to the position of Assistant Director of Track & Field.
Following the 2024 indoor season, Klim was honored as the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year. Overall, he has coached 11 athletes to a total of 16 Ivy Heptagonal individual championships and seven athletes to 14 NCAA Championships qualifications including six first-team All-America performances. Klim’s athletes also hold program records in all four pole vault sections, three of the four high jump sections, and the men’s indoor heptathlon.
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In the summer of 2024, a pair of Klim’s pole vaulters, Jimmy Rhoads and Scott Toney, competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Penn’s women have won eight Ivy Heptagonal team titles during Klim’s tenure at Penn, four each in indoor and outdoor. That includes indoor/outdoor Heps sweeps in 2018, 2019 and 2024.Before joining the staff at Penn, Klim was the assistant coach for the Akron men's cross country and track & field team for two seasons. There, he coached the men's team to its first-ever Mid-American Conference outdoor team championship in 2008.
Leading up to his years at Akron, Klim spent the 2005-06 season at Penn State University as a volunteer assistant with the women's track & field team. He was responsible for coaching the high jump and assisting with sprints, hurdles and jumps while with the Nittany Lions.
Prior to Penn State, Klim spent nine years coaching at Bucknell University. As the associate head coach for men's and women's cross country and track & field, his teams earned 20 Patriot League team championships; three men's cross country, four women's cross country, seven women's indoor track and six women's outdoor track. His athletes broke 27 school records and achieved 171 top-10 performances during his time with the Bison.
Klim's early career included stints as the head coach of the Elmhurst College cross country and track & field programs (1991-92), a graduate assistant at Campbell University (1992-94), and assistant and interim head coach at Emory University (1994-96). During that span, Klim had student-athletes qualify for NCAA Championship meets in 14 different disciplines with All-Americans in the high jump, triple jump, decathlon and 400.
Klim received his undergraduate degree in marketing from Elmhurst College in 1991. He competed for the Bluejays' track & field team at the NCAA National Championships in the decathlon, 110-meter hurdles, 400m hurdles and javelin.
In addition to his performances on the track, Klim was twice a CCIW all-conference selection and earned most valuable player honors as a member of the Bluejays' football team. In 1997, he was inducted into the Elmhurst College Hall of Fame for his athletic accomplishments. He earned his master's degree in physical education from Campbell University in 1994.
Klim lives in Cherry Hill, N.J., with his wife, Nittaya, and their son, Andrew.
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