Double Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker and World Chess Champion D Gukesh were honored with the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awards on Friday, January 17, 2025. They have been awarded by the President, Droupadi Murmu, at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi, during the national sports day ceremony.
Indian men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh and Praveen Kumar, who clinched the gold medal in the high jump at the Paris Paralympics 2024, were also bestowed with the awards by President Murmu.
Manu Bhaker and D Gukesh were among the four athletes to receive the nation’s highest sporting esteem this year.
The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is the highest sporting honor in India. It was instituted in 1991-92 and is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
Who are Manu Bhaker and D Gukesh?
Notably, Manu Bhaker is a prominent 22-year-old Indian sports shooter who secured two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics 2024 10m air pistol and 25m pistol events. This feat made her the first athlete in Indian history to win more than one medal in a single edition of the games.
This honor comes in the wake of recent sparked controversy with the Sports Ministry. Her name has been ignored from the nomination list of the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
The shooter’s father, Ram Kishan Bhaker, and coach, Jaspal Rana, expressed their disappointment to the sports authorities over not selecting her name. Her father even remarked that he should have made his daughter a cricketer instead of a shooter.
D. Gukesh, aka Gukesh Dommaraju, became the youngest man to win the world chess championship just at 19 years of age. He clinched the title of chess grandmaster after defeating Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship held in Singapore last year.
He also became the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the top prize in classical chess.
32 Athletes Receiving Arjuna Awards
In addition to this, about 32 athletes received the Arjuna Award, which is the second-highest sporting honor in India. This was for the first time that para-athletes were more than able-bodied after their sensational show in the Paralympics 2024.
India ranked 18th overall in the medal standings at the Paris Paralympics 2024, by winning a total of 29 medals, including seven golds. The Olympic medalists, including Sarabjot Singh and Swapnil Kusale, were also among the athletes who received the Arjuna Awards.
Around 17 para-athletes were honored with the Arjuna awards, these including Praveen Kumar, Sumit Antil, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Devendra Jhajharia, Sundar Singh Gurjar, etc.
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