{"id":26259,"date":"2026-08-05T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T19:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=26259"},"modified":"2026-08-05T19:01:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T19:01:00","slug":"powerlifter-spotter-declares-im-a-racist-after-sabotaging-record-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=26259","title":{"rendered":"Powerlifter spotter declares \u2018I\u2019m a racist\u2019 after sabotaging record attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-test=\"article-body-text\">\n<p>A spotter at the Powerlifting Championships admitted to sabotaging a black athlete\u2019s record attempt, declaring he did so because he was \u201ca racist\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Sonita Muluh, a Belgian powerlifter, was attempting to squat 334.5kg in Lithuania in June when Ernestas Kusinas, an assistant, placed his knee under the barbell, causing a failed attempt. The five spotters are only allowed to touch the weights if the athlete cannot fully lift them themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Muluh initially defended his action, believing it to be a mistake, only for Kusinas to reply to a video posted by an American influencer, writing: \u201cI am a racist, and I did it intentionally, because I hate you pieces of s&#8212;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His comments ensured the Lithuanian federation referred the incident to the police, who then started an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>A police spokesman told Reuters the investigation would focus on the Instagram message and events at the championship. The maximum penalty is two years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Kusinas said his Instagram comment was written out of anger, in response to racism accusations, and was intended not as a statement but as a mockery of the accusation. He said he unintentionally interfered with Muluh\u2019s and other athletes\u2019 attempts because he was tired after his duties at the event.<\/p>\n<p>The Lithuanian Powerlifting Federation issued a lifetime ban and Kusinas subsequently made his social media accounts private.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have dealt with racism in numerous ways but never in this manner,\u201d Muluh said on Instagram.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/weightlifting\/2026\/08\/05\/powerlifter-spotter-im-racist-deliberately-sabotage-attempt\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A spotter at the Powerlifting Championships admitted to sabotaging a black athlete\u2019s record attempt, declaring he did so because he was \u201ca racist\u201d. Sonita Muluh, a Belgian powerlifter, was attempting to squat 334.5kg in Lithuania in June when Ernestas Kusinas, an assistant, placed his knee under the barbell, causing a failed attempt. The five spotters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":26260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-powerlifting-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Powerlifter spotter declares \u2018I\u2019m a racist\u2019 after sabotaging record attempt - World Bodybuilding News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=26259\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Powerlifter spotter declares \u2018I\u2019m a racist\u2019 after sabotaging record attempt - World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A spotter at the Powerlifting Championships admitted to sabotaging a black athlete\u2019s record attempt, declaring he did so because he was \u201ca racist\u201d. Sonita Muluh, a Belgian powerlifter, was attempting to squat 334.5kg in Lithuania in June when Ernestas Kusinas, an assistant, placed his knee under the barbell, causing a failed attempt. The five spotters [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=26259\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-05T19:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sonia Twigg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sonia Twigg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=26259#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=26259\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sonia Twigg\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/855b46010469afd66634c137d957ff37\"},\"headline\":\"Powerlifter spotter declares \u2018I\u2019m a racist\u2019 after sabotaging record attempt\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-05T19:01:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=26259\"},\"wordCount\":255,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=26259#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/TELEMMGLPICT000497512953_17859611021760_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq2MrE_k8IYEQpdWxduQoQJDJYO0sO9RIMfWrK6rzW13.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Powerlifting News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=26259#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=26259\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=26259\",\"name\":\"Powerlifter spotter declares \u2018I\u2019m a racist\u2019 after sabotaging record attempt - 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