Motivated by Novice Pewter Medal, Joe Klein Makes the Leap to Juniors

When Joe Klein received the novice pewter medal at the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships, everything changed.
 
"Well," he thought, "I have to go up from here."
 
And go up he did, as he subsequently qualified to skate at the junior level per U.S. Figure Skating's new qualifying structure.
 
"It was definitely a really motivating point in my life," Klein said of his performance at the 2019 Championships. "I kind of felt like I really needed to step up my game so I could be able to do it again in the future. But at the moment, when I was on the podium, I was just ecstatic to be there. And it was crazy because I always thought of my competitors as always being better than where I was at, so when I was there it definitely made me feel really proud of myself."
 
Klein spent most of the season competing at the novice level, but received two junior-level assignments: the U.S. Challenge Skate, and the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid, New York.
 
The Junior Grand Prix was not only his first junior competition, but his first international competition as well.
 
"I was super happy to be at an international," Klein said. "It was definitely pretty scary to be not only at an international, but at a Junior Grand Prix. I never really thought that that would be something I would be doing this season. But I was really happy with my performance, especially with the short program. And it was awesome to be able to get seventh overall when I wasn't expecting to place that high. I felt really proud, but there's always still room for improvement, of course."
 
He pauses, and laughs. "A lot of it."
 
Now 15, Klein began skating at age 3 when he followed his older sister Chloe onto the ice. His parents signed he and his twin brother Payton up for skating lessons, figuring they would go into hockey. After a year, Payton decided he was done, but Joe decided he wanted to keep skating.
 
One of his earliest inspirations was Jason Brown.
 
"He has beautiful skating and he's a great skater, but also outside of skating, he's such a great person," Klein said. "He has such a positive aura around him, and I've never met a nicer guy."
 
Brown used to skate in Chicago, which is near Klein's training base of Northbrook, Illinois. The two crossed paths several times as they trained after Brown moved to Klein's rink, and Klein watched Brown attempt to make the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team with bated breath.
 
"It was probably a better moment for him, but it was a really cool moment for me, too," Klein said. "I've watched that program like a million times since it happened."
 
Klein has also tried to model his own skating after Brown's lyrical style, focusing on the components as well as the technical elements, and trying to keep his programs balanced.
 
This season, his short program is set to "Paint It Black" by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, while his free skate is set to "Feeling Good" by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.
 
"Every year I like to find music that I really feel," Klein said. "I think if I have a deeper comprehension of the music, I can skate more emotionally and connect to the music more, which hopefully would help my components. And this year I think, especially for my short program, I really connected with the music. And I try to play a role or a character in each program, and I try to show it off as I skate. They're really fun programs to skate, and I've enjoyed doing them."
 
Klein will be back in action at the junior level at the 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. The junior men compete on Jan. 2122.
 
Spurred on by his podium finish at the U.S. Championships in 2019, Klein doubled down on his training during the 2019-20 season. He spent about seven weeks total training with a different team of coaches in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and worked with his high school to re-balance his schedule. He starts his school day at 8 a.m., attends three periods and gets out at around 1:30 p.m. He skates before and after school, and has off-ice training after skating.
 
"It's always really difficult with missing all the school because of skating," Klein said. "But I still try to keep my grades up. I've had straight As for the past few years now. I'm a freshman in high school so it's about to get a lot harder, but I'm still keeping it up."
 
While there's not much time for much else besides school and skating, Klein still makes time for normal teenager things: hanging out with his friends, playing video games and walking his dog.
 
But it's all business when he's on the ice, and Klein feels as though his season is moving in the right direction.
 
"There were definitely a lot of ups and downs," Klein said of his season. "I think towards the beginning of the season, it was a little sloppy, but as I got later into the season I kind of pulled everything together, and I've been improving since then."
 
While he hopes to land on the podium at the U.S. Championships again, Klein is measured in his goals, and plans to use the competition as a measuring stick.
 
"I'm really excited to compete against such a strong group of men," he said. "But I'd also love to skate two clean programs, and I don't know if I can make a goal on where I'd like to be within the group, but I'd really like to skate my best and see where I am."
 
And there's a good chance he'll only go up from here.