National Awards 2025: The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Awards 2025, with athlete Tejaswin Shankar, chess stars Vidit Gujarathi, Divya Deshmukh and badminton duo Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly among those nominated for the Arjuna Awards.
The National Sports Awards are given every year to recognise and reward excellence in sports. Based on the recommendations of the Selection Committee chaired by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, the Government has decided to confer awards on the following sportspersons, coaches and entities under various categories, as per a press release from the ministry.
National Awards 2025: List of Arjuna Awards Winners
The ‘Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games’ is given for good performance over a period of the previous four years and for showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.
The athletes set to receive the award are: Tejaswin Shankar (athletics), Muhammad Ajmal Variyathodi (athletics), Priyanka Goswami (athletics), Treesa Jolly (badminton), Gayatri Gopichand (badminton), Narender (boxing), Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (chess) Divya Jitendra Deshmukh (chess), Dhanush Srikanth (deaf shooting), Lalremsiami (hockey), Rajkumar Pal (hockey), Surjeet (kabaddi), Pooja (kabaddi), Rudransh Khandelwal (para-shooting), Ekta Bhyan (para-shooting), Arvind Singh (rowing) and Akhil Sheoran (shooting).
No Cricketer to Receive National Awards
Among the 17 sportspeople who will win the Arjuna Award for their excellence in their respective sports, no cricketer was announced. The year 2025 saw Indian men’s cricket team win the ICC Champions Trophy. Meanwhile, the Women’s team created history by winning their maiden ODI World Cup. The absence of cricketers from the Arjuna Awards list certainly raised eyebrows.
National Awards 2025: Who Will Dronacharya Award?
The Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games will be given to coaches for doing outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and for enabling sportspersons to excel in International events. Former Indian footballer and coach Arumainayagam (Football) will be receiving the award.
Lifetime Honours For Boxers, Wrestlers and Other Sportspeople
Parveer Singh (athletics), Chhote Lal Yadav (boxing) and Neha Nandkumar Chavan (shooting) will be among the recipients in the regular category, while Dharmendra Singh Yadav (boxing) and Virender Kumar (wrestling) will receive the lifetime honours.
The ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar’ will also be given to corporate entities (Public/Private), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have played a visible role in the area of sports promotion and development.
Army Paralympic Node, Pune will be receiving the ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar’ award.
The applications for the aforementioned awards were invited online, and sportspersons/coaches/entities were permitted to self-apply through a dedicated Online Portal.
A large number of applications were received for these awards this year, which were considered by the Selection Committee headed by Justice (Retd.) Mishra, and consisting of members from eminent sportspersons, persons having experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.