Manu Bhaker, a double Olympic medalist shooter, and D Gukesh, a teenage chess world champion, were awarded the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award by President Droupadi Murmu at the National Sports Awards ceremony on Friday.
Along with them, men's hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and Paralympic gold medalist high jumper Praveen Kumar also received the country's highest sports honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan.Harmanpreet played a key role in the Indian hockey team's bronze medal wins at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, Praveen, who was born with a shorter left leg, earned a gold medal in Paris, improving on his silver from the Tokyo Olympics.
A standout feature of this year’s list is the number of para-athletes, which reflects India’s incredible success at the Paris Paralympics, where the country earned 29 medals, including seven golds and nine silvers.
Apart from this, Sucha Singh, an athlete from the field of athletics, and Murlikant Petkar, a para-swimmer, have been honoured with the Arjuna Award for lifetime achievement. In the Dronacharya Award category, the regular winners are Subhash Rana for Para-Shooting, Deepali Deshpande for Shooting, and Sandeep Sangwan for Hockey.
The lifetime category Dronacharya Award winners include S. Muralidharan for Badminton and Armando Colaco for Football, recognizing their significant contributions to their respective sports.
Manu Bhaker, at 22, made history by becoming the first athlete from independent India to win two Olympic medals in a single edition, securing bronze in both the 10m air pistol individual and mixed team events at the Tokyo Olympics.
At just 18, D Gukesh became the youngest-ever chess world champion by defeating China’s Ding Liren last month, joining Viswanathan Anand as just the second Indian to achieve this prestigious title. The annual sports honors are decided through a points system, with the greatest emphasis placed on achievements at the Olympics and World Championships.