The Sports Ministry on Tuesday decided against bestowing the coveted Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award on any athlete for the year 2025, while unveiling a significantly pruned list of 17 Arjuna Award recipients after an unprecedented re-evaluation of the selection panel’s recommendations made more than six months ago.
Hockey star Hardik Singh was considered for the country’s highest sporting honour by the selection panel headed by former Supreme Court judge Arun Kumar Mishra but eventually fell out of contention. The last time the country did not have a Khel Ratna awardee was in 2014.
World Cup-winning chess player Divya Deshmukh, decathlete and high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, and shuttler Gayatri Gopichand were among the 17 sportspersons named for the Arjuna Award on Tuesday.
Also on the Arjuna Award list were Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, Gayatri Gopichand’s women’s doubles partner Treesa Jolly, Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist boxer Narender Berwal (+92kg), and young deaf rifle shooter Dhanush Srikanth.
The selection committee this year had recommended 24 names for the Arjuna Award, but the ministry approved only 17.
The awards were announced following a massive delay, with the ministry initiating a re-evaluation process to ensure only deserving candidates were honoured and to “preserve the integrity of the awards.”
The 19-year-old Deshmukh is the first Indian woman to win the Chess World Cup. Vidit Gujrathi was part of the gold medal-winning Indian team at the 2024 Chess Olympiad.
Tejaswin Shankar, who won a historic decathlon silver medal at the 2023 Asian Games and followed it up with a second-place finish at the Asian Championships last year, recently won a pathbreaking bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games despite battling a knee problem.
He was among the athletes who criticised the delay in the announcement of the awards, calling it disrespectful to sportspersons.
In 2024, a record 32 athletes were conferred the Arjuna Award, including 17 from para-sports. This time, only two para-athletes made the final cut.
Para club thrower Ekta Bhyan, who won gold at the 2024 Para World Championships, and shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, a 2024 Para World Cup gold medallist, were the only para-athletes selected.
Ekta also won a silver medal at the World Championships held in Delhi last year.
The list, however, does not feature any cricketer, which has been the case since pacer Mohammed Shami received the honour in 2023.
I. Arumainayagam, a member of the gold medal-winning Indian football team at the 1962 Asian Games, was the sole recipient of the Arjuna Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The ministry has named three Dronacharya Award recipients.
Boxing coach Chhote Lal Yadav, who was part of the women’s national camp as well as the support staff of the legendary M.C. Mary Kom, is the most prominent name on the shortlist.
For the Dronacharya Award for Lifetime Achievement, Dharmendra Yadav, who coaches the men’s national squad, and wrestling coach Virender Kumar have been named.
The Khel Ratna, the country’s highest sporting honour, carries a medallion, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh, while the Arjuna Award carries a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh.
Last year, the Khel Ratna was bestowed on four athletes: world champion chess player D. Gukesh, men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh, para-athlete Praveen Kumar and shooter Manu Bhaker.
The awards were traditionally presented on August 29 every year to commemorate National Sports Day, which also marks the birth anniversary of one of India’s greatest sportspersons, hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.
However, following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the ceremony was conducted virtually due to health protocols, the date has not remained consistent.
On more than one occasion, the ceremony has been pushed back by a couple of months after August 29 to accommodate performances in multi-sport events. The latest it was held was on January 17 last year.
However, the announcement of the 2025 awardees after more than half of 2026 had passed marks the biggest delay since the inception of the awards in 1991.
This year’s selection panel included, among others, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Vice-President Gagan Narang, former badminton player Aparna Popat and former hockey player M.M. Somaya.
Arjuna Awards: Tejaswin Shankar (Athletics), Priyanka Goswami (Athletics), Narender Berwal (Boxing), Vidit Gujrathi (Chess), Divya Deshmukh (Chess), Dhanush Srikanth (Deaf Shooting), Rajkumar Pal (Hockey), Surjeet (Kabaddi), Rudransh Khandelwal (Para-Shooting), Ekta Bhyan (Para-Athletics), Arvind Singh (Rowing), Akhil Sheoran (Shooting), Treesa Jolly (Badminton), Gayatri Gopichand (Badminton), Lalremsiami (Hockey), Muhammed Ajmal (Athletics) and Pooja (Kabaddi).