CHENNAI: The National Sports Awards 2025 will be given to the selected athletes in a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday. As many as 17 sportspersons will be conferred the prestigious Arjuna Award during the function, which will also be attended by the union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
It should be noted that the award ceremony got delayed by more than a year. The selection committee was chaired by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice (Retd) Arun Kumar Mishra. The panel recommended the names on December 24, 2025. Interestingly, the list of awardees itself got pruned a few months ago with seven from 24 names recommended by the selection panel eventually struck off. The ministry of youth affairs and sports announced the final list on August 18.
Never in the history of the awards has the finalising the list or function been delayed this much. According to the latest scheme (dated 14.10.2024), "The Awards will be conferred in a ceremony by the President of India, ordinarily on 29th August, birth anniversary of Late Major Dhyan Chand." The ministry made concessions for mega event years. "However, during the years when Olympic Games, Commonwealth and Asian Games are held, the date of the award ceremony will be finalized keeping in view the closing dates of these Games..."
Yet, after 2020, the sports ministry has been unable to hold the meeting before August 29 to select athletes and coaches. In 2021, it was the Olympic year, 2022 the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2023, while 2024 was the Paris Games. If one takes into account 2025, perhaps one of the leanest years in terms of sports achievement cycle, this delay is simply baffling and, of course, illogical.
It was also learnt that no name was recommended for Khel Ratna by the panel. Apart from Arjuna Awards, Dronacharya Awards will also be given to three coaches. In lifetime category, two coaches will be conferred Dronacharya Awards while one sportsperson will be given Arjuna Award in the category.
Meanwhile, Army Paralympic Node, Pune will be given Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar. President Droupadi Murmu will confer the awards on the selected athletes in the function, which is scheduled to begin at 11:30AM.
List of recipients
Arjuna Award: 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 Hmar Zote (hockey), Mohammed Ajmal V (athletics), Pooja (kabaddi).
Arjuna Award (Lifetime): I Arumainayagam (football).
Dronacharya Award: Parveer Singh (athletics), Chhote Lal Yadav (boxing), Neha Chavan (shooting).
Dronacharya Award (Lifetime): Dharmendra Singh Yadav (boxing), Virender Kumar (wrestling).
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar: Army Paralympic Node, Pune.
