The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports on Tuesday announced the National Sports Awards 2025, naming 17 sportspersons for the prestigious Arjuna Award. However, no sportsperson was selected for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour.
The awardees were selected on the recommendations of a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra.
Divya Deshmukh, Tejaswin Shankar among Arjuna awardees
World Cup-winning chess player Divya Deshmukh, decathlete and high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, and badminton player Gayatri Gopichand are among the 17 recipients.
Divya, 19, became the fourth Indian woman to earn the Grandmaster title after becoming the first Indian woman to win the Chess World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, last year.
Tejaswin Shankar recently created history by winning a bronze medal in decathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, becoming the first Indian to win a medal in the event at the Games.
Other prominent Arjuna awardees include chess Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, badminton player Treesa Jolly, boxer Narender, and deaf rifle shooter Dhanush Srikanth.
Notably, no cricketer has been included in this year’s Arjuna Award list. This continues the trend since pacer Mohammed Shami received the honour in 2023.
Khel Ratna remains vacant
Hockey player Hardik Singh was reportedly considered for the Khel Ratna but did not make the final list. The last time the country’s top sporting honour had no recipient was in 2014.
The announcement was also unusually delayed. The 2025 awards were announced only in August 2026 following a re-evaluation process by the sports ministry, which said the exercise was aimed at ensuring that only deserving candidates were honoured and preserving the integrity of the awards.
The selection committee had initially recommended 24 names for the Arjuna Award, but the ministry approved 17.
Full list of Arjuna Award winners
- Tejaswin Shankar — Athletics
- Priyanka Goswami — Athletics
- Narender — 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
- Pooja — Kabaddi
Arjuna Award for Lifetime Achievement: I Arumainayagam — Football
Dronacharya Award winners
Three coaches were named for the Dronacharya Award:
- Parveer Singh — Dronacharya Award
- Chhote Lal Yadav — Dronacharya Award
- Neha Chavan — Dronacharya Award
For Dronacharya Award (Lifetime Achievement), the recipients are:
- Dharmendra Yadav
- Virender Kumar
Chhote Lal Yadav, who has worked with India’s women’s boxing setup and was part of the support staff associated with legendary boxer MC Mary Kom, is among the more prominent names on the coaching list.
