This mother-daughter powerlifting duo is winning gold together in Labrador

When Abi Hanrahan-Miller of Happy Valley-Goose Bay started powerlifting, the 15-year-old had to bring her mom, Dana Hanrahan, to the gym to supervise.

Two years later, the two are still heading to the gym together — but now her mom is pulling her own weight and winning gold.

"I always joked that it would be a dance duo," said Hanrahan, now 17, in a recent interview. "But unfortunately it got replaced with powerlifting."

Hanrahan-Miller started going to the gym because she had a strong upper body and wanted to build on her strength. The owner of Gears Gains in Happy Valley-Goose Bay saw her bench 115 pounds — 52 kilograms — and introduced her to powerlifting. In May she won gold in her age and weight class in the Canadian Powerlifting Union national championships.

While travelling with her daughter, Hanrahan said she was surprised to see women her age and older competing. 

"A couple of women were coming up to me and going, 'You know what? This has helped me through cancer treatments,'" she said. "It's an amazing society and community … and they're like, 'Anyone can do this.'" 

Hanrahan signed up for a powerlifting program and the 47-year-old made her competitive debut Aug. 13 in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, alongside her daughter.

"It's actually a bit powerful because a lot of women my age don't think that they can do this. You know, our knees are too bad, our necks are too bad and stuff," she said. "It built up my muscle and helped me actually get over a lot of the injuries I had. It took me out of heart attack range."

They each took gold in their respective categories. Hanrahan-Miller said she never thought in a thousand years they would be a powerlifting duo, but she's "very grateful" that her mom is following in her