Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award 2024: The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India, today (January 2) announced the National Sports Awards 2024. The award winners will receive the sports awards from the President of India Draupadi Murmu at a special ceremony to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 17 January 2025 (Friday) at 11 am. The special thing was that it was decided to give Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award to 4 players. Among the 32 players who have been given the Arjuna Award, 17 were para athletes. This is a record figure.
This time Khel Ratna has been given to 4 players including Manu Bhakar and D Gukesh. Apart from Manu Bhakar and D Gukesh, hockey player ‘Sarpanch Saheb’ captain Harmanpreet Singh and para athlete player Praveen Kumar have also been given the Khel Ratna Award. This time paraathlete Navdeep has also received the Arjuna Award. Who came into limelight due to his throw in Paralympics.
The name of cricket remained missing this time
This time, no cricket player was included in the Khel Ratna and Dhyanchand Khel Ratna awards. Which was surprising. At the same time, the name of any person associated with cricket was not included in the category of coach. Last time Mohammed Shami was awarded the Arjuna Award in cricket. Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy had received the Arjuna Award in blind cricket last year. In such a situation, this time many questions have been raised as not a single cricketer has received either the Dhyan Chandra Award or the Khel Ratna Award.
These players received Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award 2024
1. D Gukesh (chess)
2. Harmanpreet Singh (hockey)
3. Praveen Kumar (Para Athletics)
4. Manu Bhaker (Shooting)
Who are those 4 players who received ‘Khel Ratna’
1: Manu Bhaker: Manu first made it to the podium in the 10 meter air pistol at the Paris Olympics and then along with Sarabjot Singh won the second bronze medal in the 10 meter mixed team. In this way, she became the first Indian player to win two medals in the same season of this Mahakumbh of sports.
2:D Gukesh: Dommaraju Gukesh (D Gukesh) became the youngest world champion in the history of chess. In 2024, a new role model has emerged in the form of 18 year old Gukesh from Chennai. He became world champion by defeating Ding Liren of China in the World Chess Championship match in Singapore. Even before the 14th round title match, Gukesh was considered a strong contender, which was bound to create pressure. Gukesh won the title of world champion by registering victories in the third, 11th and 14th rounds.
3: Harmanpreet Singh: By winning the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics, the Indian team captained by ‘Sarpanch Saheb’ Harmanpreet Singh proved that the bronze medal won in the Tokyo Games was no fluke. Harmanpreet scored 10 goals in the Paris Olympics, on the basis of which he got the FIH Best Player of the Year award for the third time. Also received the male player award.
4: Praveen Kumar: Paraathlete Praveen belongs to Uttar Pradesh. Praveen won the gold medal in the Men’s High Jump-T64 event at the Paris Olympics 2024 by breaking the Asian record.
What do you get after winning Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award?
The recipient of the Khel Ratna Award receives a medal, a citation and Rs 25 lakh in cash, while the Arjuna Award carries Rs 15 lakh in cash, an Arjun statue and a citation. Lifetime Arjun Award recipients include India’s first Paralympic gold medalist. Winners include Muralikant Petkar, who won the yellow medal in 50 meter freestyle swimming at the 1972 Paralympics. Recently the film ‘Chandu Champion’ has been made on Petkar, who died due to bullet injuries during the India-Pakistan war of 1965.
See who received the Arjuna Award
1. Jyoti Yaraji (Athletics)
2. Annu Rani (Athletics)
3. Neetu (boxing)
4. Sweety (boxing)
5. Vantika Agarwal (Chess)
6. Salima Tete (hockey)
7. Abhishek (hockey)
8. Sanjay (hockey)
9. Jarmanpreet Singh (hockey)
10. Sukhjit Singh (hockey)
11. Rakesh Kumar (Para Archery)
12. Preeti Pal (Para Athletics)
13. Jeevanji Deepti (Para Athletics)
14. Ajit Singh (Para Athletics)
15. Sachin Sarjerao Khilari (Para Athletics)
16. Dharambir (Para Athletics)
17. Pranab Surma (Para Athletics)
18. H Hokato Sema (Para Athletics)
19. Simran ji (Para Athletics)
20. Navdeep (Para Athletics)
21. Nitesh Kumar (Para Badminton)
22. Tulsimathi Murugesan (Para Badminton)
23. Nitya Sri Sumati Sivan (Para Badminton)
24. Manisha Ramdas (Para Badminton)
25. Kapil Parmar (Para Judo)
26. Mona Agarwal (Para Shooting)
27. Rubina Francis (Para Shooting)
28. Swapnil Suresh Kusale (Shooting)
29. Sarabjot Singh (Shooting)
30. Abhay Singh (Squash)
31. Sajan Prakash (Swimming)
32. Aman (wrestling)
Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in sports (lifetime)
1. Sucha Singh (Athletics)
2. Muralikant Rajaram Petkar (Para-swimming)
Dronacharya Award (Regular Category)
1. Subhash Rana (Para-Shooting)
2. Deepali Deshpande (Shooting)
3. Sandeep Sangwan (hockey)
Dronacharya Award (Lifetime Category)
1. S. Muralitharan (badminton)
2. Armando Agnello Colaco (football)
National Sports Promotion Award
1. Physical Education Foundation of India
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2024
1 Chandigarh University (Overall Winner University)
2. Lovely Professional University, (1st Runner-up University)
3. Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (Second Runner Up University)