Peformance Initiatives

Savannah Morning News
October 18, 2011

Nikki Hanebrink, a ninth-grader at Sol C. Johnson High School, has won the Subway Fresh Fit poster contest for a poster that illustrated her visual story of weight loss and fitness.

When Hanebrink was 12 years old, she weighed 187 pounds, but in working with her aunt, former competitive weightlifter Kerri Goodrich, she has lost more than 50 pounds,

Subway spokesman Jared Fogle made the presentation for the post Friday at Performance Initiatives Fitness, 2021 Tennessee Ave.

Hanebrink won $1,000 in Subway gift cards, which she said she will share with her weightlifting teammates.

Prizes also included $1,000 to Coastal Empire Weightlifting, a program offered at Performance Initiatives Fitness, which will go toward new equipment.

After Hanebrink went to live with Goodrich in 2009, her aunt was steadfast in making Hanebrink learn discipline, respect and a healthy lifestyle through weightlifting.

“I was depressed and angry and I hated weightlifting,” Nikki said in a story published Jan. 18 in the Savannah Morning News.

Within the first year, though, Nikki qualified for the School Age Nationals and Junior Olympics. She won a silver and two bronze medals in California and a silver medal in Virginia.