Udaipur, January 3, 2025 - The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports yesterday, January 2, announced the National Sports Awards. Four athletes will be honoured with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and 34 will receive the Arjuna Award. Two athletes will be given the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The four Khel Ratna awardees are shooter Manu Bhaker, chess prodigy D Gukesh, hockey star Harmanpreet Singh, and para-athlete Praveen Kumar. Jaipur’s para-shooter Mona Agarwal will be honoured with the Arjuna Award. Mona won a bronze medal at the Paris Paralympics.

The Khel Ratna is India’s highest sporting honour in the National Sports Awards which is given annually. It is bestowed upon athletes for outshining in their respective fields. This accolade recognises consistent excellence over the preceding four years.

Manu Bhaker’s selection finally puts an end to all the hue and cry raised over rumours that her name was not included in the Khel Ratna list. Bhaker became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in shooting with a bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics in the women’s 10m air pistol event.

The awards will be presented by President of India Droupadi Murmu on January 17, 2025, at Rashtrapati Bhavan in a ceremony starting from 11:00 am.

Arjuna Award Winners for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games 2024:

• Jyothi Yarraji - Athletics
• Annu Rani - Athletics
• Nitu Ghanghas - Boxing
• Saweety Boora - Boxing
• Vantika Agrawal - Chess
• Salima Tete - Hockey
• Abhishek - Hockey
• Sanjay - Hockey
• Jarmanpreet Singh - Hockey
• Sukhjeet Singh – Hockey
• Swapnil Kusale - Shooting
• Sarabjot Singh - Shooting
• Abhay Singh - Squash
• Sajan Prakash - Swimming
• Aman Sehrawat - Wrestling
• Mona Agarwal - Para-Shooting
• Rakesh Kumar - Para-Archery
• Preeti Pal - Para-Athletics
• Jeevanji Deepthi - Para-Athletics
• Ajeet Singh - Para-Athletics
• Sachin Sarjerao Khilari - Para-Athletics
• Pranav Soorma - Para-Athletics
• Hokato Hotozhe Sema - Para-Athletics
• Simran Sharma - Para-Athletics
• Navdeep Singh - Para-Athletics
• Dharambir - Para-Athletics
• Nitesh Kumar - Para-Badminton
• Thulasimathi Murugesan - Para-Badminton
• Nithya Sre Sivan - Para-Badminton
• Manisha Ramadass - Para-Badminton
• Kapil Parmar - Para-Judo
• Rubina Francis - Para-Shooting

Arjuna Awards (Lifetime) 2024 winners

• Sucha Singh - Athletics
• Murlikant Petkar - Para-Swimming

Dronacharya Award 2024 winners

Regular Category

• Subhash Rana - Para-Shooting
• Deepali Deshpande - Shooting
• Sandeep Sangwan - Hockey

Lifetime Category

• S Muralidharan - Badminton
• Armando Colaco - Football

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2024 winners

• Chandigarh University - Overall winner
• Lovely Professional University, (PB) - 1st runner up
• Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar - 2nd runner up

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar 2024 winner

• Physical Education Foundation of India