Double Olympic-medalist Manu Bhaker, chess world champion Gukesh, gold-medalist Paralympian Praveen Kumar, and captain of the bronze-medal-winning Indian hockey team Harmanpreet Singh are the four athletes who will be presented with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, as a part of the National Sports Awards 2024 announced by the Sports Ministry.
The Arjuna awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024 will be presented to a total of 32 athletes, 17 of them being para-athletes, in honor of their success at the 2024 Paris Paralympics where they brought home 29 medals including seven gold and nine silver. The awards will be conferred on the athletes by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17.
22-year old Manu Bhaker became independent India’s first athlete to win two meals in a single edition of the Olympics. Paralympian Praveen Kumar, who won the gold medal at the men’s T64 high-jump event at the Paris Paralympics, which is for athletes who have one or both legs missing below the knee and rely on a prosthetic leg for running.
Here is a complete list of the awardees. Click on the each panel for more information on that athlete.
Published – January 08, 2025 10:58 am IST