Indian powerlifter Keyaa Kunal Banerji’s remarkable performance at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior & Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships brought her into the spotlight after she lifted 140kg in the deadlift to win a silver medal for India. But the 21-year-old athlete has now revealed that the attention following her achievement has also brought a deeply disturbing side of social media- including online sexual harassment, impersonation and thousands of AI-generated images made using her face and body.Banerji, who competes in the junior women’s 47kg category, spoke about her experience through her Instagram Stories.“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,” she wrote, listing sexual harassment online, accounts impersonating her and “disturbing conversations surrounding my ethnicity, ancestry and caste”.She said the most distressing part had been the circulation of manipulated images created using artificial intelligence. “And the worst- thousands of AI generated images of me with pictures of my body and face morphed and edited in very disturbing ways,” Banerji wrote.She said the scale of the abuse had made the experience particularly unsettling. “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 AI pictures,” she said.
Keyaa Banerji won a silver medal with a 140kg deadlift at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior & Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships.
‘I never posted pictures on it’
Banerji said the situation was particularly difficult because she had always preferred to keep her personal life away from social media. “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!” she wrote.According to Banerji, her old Instagram account was also suspended. She described it as a private account with around 300 followers and said the experience left her feeling that she had little choice but to create a new public account. She added she wanted to ensure that she had some control over how her achievement and identity were being represented online. “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!” she wrote.
‘The purpose of my sport in my life is just to challenge myself’
Amid the sudden attention, Banerji stressed that her motivation for powerlifting had never been fame or social media visibility. “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,” she said. She added that she had never wanted the kind of online visibility that followed her performance. “I never wanted to see myself everywhere like this, in-fact I really despised all these AI posters popping up without my consent,” Banerji wrote.Her original intention after the World Championships, she said, was simply to share the achievement with people close to her. “Initially, I just wanted to share this accomplishment with my close friends and family,” she said.
Keyaa Banerji addressed the issue through a series of Instagram stories.
‘I just want to exist as a girl who likes to deadlift’
Banerji subsequently asked people interested in following her journey to use her new account rather than searching for or sharing fake versions of her online. “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!” Banerji said.For the young athlete, the issue goes beyond the images themselves. It is also about how she wants to be seen- as an athlete and an individual rather than as an object of online scrutiny. “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,” she wrote.In another Story, Banerji acknowledged that the attention surrounding her achievement had begun to overshadow what should have been a celebratory moment. “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!” she wrote.Banerji’s comments come days after her 140kg deadlift at the World Championships attracted widespread attention online. Her performance had become a rare viral moment for Indian powerlifting, with social media users sharing clips of the lift and celebrating her strength.But Banerji’s latest posts underline the uncomfortable reality that greater visibility can also expose female athletes to harassment, impersonation and the misuse of their images. For now, her message is less about seeking more attention and more about reclaiming control over the attention she has already received. Her demand, she made clear, is a simple one: to be able to celebrate her sport on her own terms.
