'Dark flip side I wasn’t ready for': Keyaa Banerji reveals disturbing side of online fame

Indian powerlifter Keyaa Banerji is coming to terms with an unexpected side of fame after her breakthrough performance at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior and Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships in Sun City, South Africa.

The 21-year-old won silver in the junior women's 47 kg category after lifting 140 kg despite weighing 45.7 kg. Her performance went viral online, bringing widespread attention to an athlete who had largely kept her sporting journey private.

Banerji began powerlifting in 2024, when she was 19, and started competing professionally around eight months later. Her rapid progress in the deadlift gave her confidence that she could challenge the national record in her weight category and eventually qualify for the world championships.

“I took up powerlifting in June of 2024, two years ago, when I was 19, and started competing professionally about eight months later. Back then, my rapid deadlift progression made me realise I had the potential to break the national deadlift record in my weight class and possibly qualify for the IPF Worlds, which motivated me to start competing in qualifiers,” she said.

AI-generated content leaves powerlifter disturbed

The attention following her silver medal, however, soon turned distressing. Banerji said fake images and videos featuring her began circulating on social media, including content generated or altered using AI.

She said the experience prompted her to speak publicly after seeing herself being sexualised online and subjected to derogatory comments about her caste.

“I’ve gotten several wonderful, positive, and encouraging messages from people all over the country, but there was definitely a dark flip side I wasn’t ready for. I hadn’t shared any official competition pictures with anyone, and yet thousands of pages that went viral were posting images from my competition with my face and body edited with AI,” she said.

“Even real competition pictures had extra makeup edited onto my face, and it was quite disorienting to be seeing these images without having control over them. It only got worse when fake accounts came up on social media impersonating me and posting inappropriate AI-generated content, and my personal account was suspended.

There were also several extremely disturbing and dehumanising discussions where people were sexualising me and making dehumanising comments about my caste and ancestry. I felt the need to speak up about this from a new public social media account and issue a statement to show little girls they can stand up for themselves and raise important questions about how we treat female athletes,” she added.

Asian record next on Banerji’s list

Banerji also hopes to continue representing India at the IPF Worlds and Asian championships. She wants powerlifting to eventually gain Olympic recognition.

“There is a common misconception that weightlifting and powerlifting are the same sport. Powerlifting, unlike weightlifting, is a relatively niche sport and is not included in the Olympics. I compete under the ‘IPF’, the International Powerlifting Federation, which is one of the highest levels of drug-tested Powerlifting you can compete at across the globe. Hence, the goal would be to continue representing the country at the IPF Worlds and the Asians and continue winning,” she said.

Her immediate target is the Asian record of 147.5 kg in her weight class.

“Powerlifting is a long term and highly technical sport where an athlete’s numbers progress slowly over years of training and thousands of training sessions, this year the goal was to attend worlds and come back with a medal, over the next few years it will be to continue competing at a this level, recover from injuries, and break the Asian record of 147.5 kgs in my weight class officially in competition, break world records in the next decade and bring back gold medals for the country,” she concluded.