Keyaa Banerji's name is all over the internet. The world saw her talent on the biggest stage after she won a silver medal at the 2026 IPF World Sub-Junior and Junior Classic Powerlifting Championships in Sun City, South Africa. While the world continues to go gaga over her heroics of lifting three times her body weight, not many are aware of the hard yards she has been putting in behind the scenes for the last few years.
The young powerlifter competed in the junior women's 47kg weight category and took home silver after producing a lift of 140kg despite weighing just 45.7 kg. The feat is immense, and it was no surprise to see the video go viral and shared by millions of users around the world.
Success in sports never comes overnight; it takes years of hard work for that one moment of glory. For Keyaa, the moment arrived after two years of toiling. Speaking to Hindustan Times Digital, Keyaa revealed that she took up powerlifting two years back in 2024 when she was just 19. However, she was caught off guard when so many people took notice of her after South Africa.
“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.
{{/usCountry}}“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.
{{/usCountry}}“I’ve always been a private person and only a few of my friends and family knew about my world championship, and with Powerlifting being a low-visibility sport, I was initially quite shocked to see myself everywhere on the Internet after my silver,” she added.
The online abuse that followed
The internet is both a boon and a bane, and Keyaa discovered its ugly side soon after achieving a special moment in her career. Shortly after her historic feat, Keyaa realised that AI was being used to create and circulate fake videos and pictures of her event on platforms like X (Twitter) and Instagram.
Keyaa then issued a statement on Instagram Stories, opening up about the abuse she had been facing and urging her followers not to fall prey to AI-generated or morphed content. The 21-year-old said she decided to speak up after seeing people sexualise her online and make derogatory remarks 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.
Difference between powerlifting and weightlifting
Contrary to popular belief, there is a significant difference between powerlifting and weightlifting, with the former not currently an Olympic sport. Powerlifting focuses on absolute maximum strength through three lifts - the squat, bench press and deadlift - while weightlifting emphasises power and speed through two overhead lifts - the snatch and clean and jerk.
However, as one would expect, Keyaa too wants to represent the country at the highest level and is hopeful that powerlifting will soon make its way to the Olympics.
“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.
“I think there are efforts being made towards its inclusion, and I would be more than delighted if it were included in the Olympics and would definitely make it a goal to represent the country there,” she added.
This is just a start
Keya’s silver at the Junior Championships is just the start. She has her sights set on competing across the globe and bringing more glory to the country. Her goal is to break the Asian record of 147.5 kg in her weight class and will do everything in her power to make it her own.
“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 147.5kgs in my weight class officially in competition, break world records in the next decade and bring back gold medals for the country,” she concluded.