Indian powerlifter Keyaa Kunal Banerji’s remarkable 140kg deadlift was supposed to be a moment of sporting celebration. Instead, the viral attention surrounding her silver-medal-winning performance at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior & Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships has exposed her to a deeply disturbing side of online fame.The 21-year-old powerlifter has revealed that she has faced sexual harassment, impersonation, conversations about her ethnicity, ancestry and caste, and what she described as thousands of AI-generated images using manipulated versions of her face and body.Banerji opened up about the experience through a series of Instagram stories, explaining why she had created a new account after her previous private profile was suspended. Her decision, she made clear, was not an attempt to chase followers or turn herself into a social media personality, but rather to reclaim control over her own identity and sporting story.
“I recently won a deadlift silver medal at IPF Jr Worlds for India and while I appreciate the support and recognition, as an Indian female athlete I’ve also had to deal with sexual harassment online, accounts impersonating me and disturbing conversations surrounding my ethnicity, ancestry and caste?”But it was the scale and nature of the AI manipulation that appeared to trouble her most.“And the Worst thousands of Al generated images of me with pictures of my body and face morphed and edited in very disturbing ways it’s quite unnerving to be waking up everyday to my feed (and the feeds of every single person I know) flooded with these fake Al pictures,” Banerji wrote.
From a 140kg celebration to an unwanted online spotlight
Banerji competed in the Junior Women’s 47kg category at the championships in Sun City, South Africa. Her 140kg deadlift earned her a silver medal in the individual event, behind France’s Ines Herbaux, who lifted 165kg. Ireland’s Blathnaid O’Dwyer also lifted 140kg.Banerji finished fifth overall in her category after recording a 90kg squat and a 50kg bench press for a 280kg total. Her deadlift was more than three times her competition bodyweight of 45.70kg, helping make the lift an instantly striking clip for social media audiences.The video of the lift spread well beyond the traditional powerlifting community, with users celebrating the young Indian athlete’s strength and achievement.But the attention quickly became something Banerji had never sought.
“I’ve always been a private person and if you’ve known me in any capacity/followed my old account you’d know I never posted pictures on it either! It only got more stressful when Instagram suspended my old account (a private account with 300 followers), hence I’ve made this new one.”She said she had initially wanted to keep the new account private too, but felt she had little choice if she wanted to establish which online identity was actually hers.“I didn’t want to make it public but I’m left with no choice if I want to have a say in a narrative about my own sport and accomplishment and stand up for myself without getting my account suspended again!”The decision effectively put Banerji in the unusual position of becoming more visible online precisely because she wanted to regain control over how she was being portrayed.
‘I just want to exist as a girl who likes to deadlift’
For Banerji, the sudden fame also sits uneasily with what powerlifting means to her.“The purpose of my sport in my life is just to challenge myself in a fun way and I’m grateful to be competing at the level that I am. I never wanted to see myself everywhere like this, in-fact I really despised all these Al posters popping up without my consent. Initially, I just wanted to share this accomplishment with my close friends and family.”She stressed that her new account was not created with ambitions of becoming an influencer or monetising the attention generated by her performance.“I have no goals of profiting from this account/and no goals of content creation whatsoever, I just want to start fresh with this account and make it clear which one’s mine so that Instagram doesn’t take my voice away again!”Instead, she wants people who are genuinely interested in her sporting journey to follow the account she controls and avoid amplifying fake versions of her.“Thanks for reading it would be really helpful if you could all follow this account if you’re interested and redirect people looking for my account to this page because I’d much rather share real pictures of myself and my experience than have you guys look at these Al edits”The sudden transition from being a private social media user to having a public profile has understandably made her uncomfortable.“It still makes me uneasy to have a public account all of a sudden as someone who barely uses any social media, but I’d rather take shaky steps towards standing up for myself and having some kind of say in a story about me than reading different versions of it everyday.”Banerji also made it clear that she remains willing to talk about the World Championships and her experience in South Africa, but asked people to approach her content with greater sensitivity.“If you’re curious to know more about Worlds and my experience-I’ll be happy to share, let’s please do it in a way that’s mindful of my mental health!”
‘A girl who likes to deadlift’, not an online image
The powerlifter’s posts repeatedly returned to one central point: she wants her sporting identity to remain hers.“I truly want the opposite of more publicity over this and I couldn’t care less about follower counts etc, I just want a space where I can exist as a girl who likes to deadlift and not an image that’s been pulled apart over and over again that feels so inauthentic to me”That distinction is at the heart of Banerji’s experience. The 140kg deadlift gave her a moment she could rightly celebrate, but the viral response transformed her sporting accomplishment into a source of unwanted scrutiny.She later acknowledged how much the attention had begun to affect her ability to enjoy what should have been one of the biggest achievements of her young career.“a lot of the attention has been overwhelming and in ways I’ve let it overpower the joy and whimsy that comes with a big win!”Her 140kg lift was not an isolated breakthrough. Banerji’s numbers had been steadily improving, with a 127.5kg deadlift at the 2025 national championship and 140kg at the 2026 national championship before matching that figure on the world stage.Her South African performance therefore represented another step in an emerging powerlifting career. Yet the viral nature of the lift brought a different kind of challenge — one she had not trained for and did not ask for.
