The much-delayed announced the National Sports Awards 2025 were finally announced on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) with no Khel Ratna recipient and just 17 sportspersons named for the Arjuna Awards.
Among those cleared by the Sports Ministry on the basis of recommendations from the selection committee headed by Justice (Retd.)
No cricketer has been named in the list in any of the categories including the Dronacharya for coaching credentials.
Dronacharya Award: Parveer Singh (athletics) Chhote Lal Yadav (boxing), Neha Chavan (shooting).
Lifetime: Dharmendra Yadav (boxing), Virender Kumar (wrestling).
The much-delayed announced the National Sports Awards 2025 were finally announced on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) with no Khel Ratna recipient and just 17 sportspersons named for the Arjuna Awards.
This is the first time no sportsperson has been considered for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, and also the least number of athletes being conferred the Arjuna since 2017, when 17 sportspersons were named for the honour for sporting excellence.
Among those cleared by the Sports Ministry on the basis of recommendations from the selection committee headed by Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra last year are decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, athletes Muhammed Ajmal V. and Priyanka Goswami and hockey stars Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal. No cricketer has been named in the list in any of the categories including the Dronacharya for coaching credentials.
There are no mentions either for the Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Sporting Excellence or the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy for universities after a long-drawn re-evaluation by the ministry of the recommendations by the committee made towards the end of last year.
The awardees:
Arjuna Awards: Tejaswin Shankar, Muhammed Ajmal V, and Priyanka Goswami (all athletics); Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand (both badminton); Narender (boxing); Vidit Gujarathi and Divya Deshmukh (both chess); Dhanush Srikanth (deaf shooting); Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal (both hockey); Surjeet and Pooja (both kabaddi); Rudransh Khandelwal (para shooting); Ekta Bhyan (para athletics); Arvind Singh (rowing); Akhil Sheoran (shooting). Lifetime: I. Arumainayagam (football).
Dronacharya Award: Parveer Singh (athletics) Chhote Lal Yadav (boxing), Neha Chavan (shooting). Lifetime: Dharmendra Yadav (boxing), Virender Kumar (wrestling).
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar: Army Paralympic Node, Pune.
