The quartet of athletes — shooter Manu Bhaker, chess world champion D Gukesh, men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh, and para-athlete Praveen Kumar — were announced as the recipients of this year’s Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, which is the highest sporting honour in the country.
Manu Bhaker, 22 years old, became the first athlete from independent India to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics. She secured a bronze medal in both the 10m air pistol individual and the 10m air pistol mixed team events in August.
During the same Olympic Games, Harmanpreet Singh led the Indian hockey team to its second consecutive bronze medal.
Eighteen-year-old D Gukesh made history by becoming the youngest World Chess Champion and played a crucial role in helping the Indian team secure a historic gold medal at the Chess Olympiad last year.
The fourth recipient, para high-jumper Praveen Kumar, was crowned the T64 champion at the Paris Paralympics. The T64 classification is for athletes who have one or both legs missing below the knee and use a prosthetic leg for running.
According to a press release from the sports ministry, the awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a special ceremony organized at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17, 2025 (Friday) at 11:00 AM.
Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, the Government has decided to confer awards upon the following sportspersons, coaches, university and entity:
1. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2024
| S. No. | Name of the Sportsperson | Discipline |
| 1. | Shri Gukesh D | Chess |
| 2. | Shri Harmanpreet Singh | Hockey |
| 3. | Shri Praveen Kumar | Para-Athletics |
| 4. | Ms. Manu Bhaker | Shooting |
2. Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024
| S. No. | Name of the Sportsperson | Discipline |
| 1 | Ms. Jyothi Yarraji | Athletics |
| 2 | Ms. Annu Rani | Athletics |
| 3 | Ms. Nitu | Boxing |
| 4 | Ms. Saweety | Boxing |
| 5 | Ms. Vantika Agrawal | Chess |
| 6 | Ms. Salima Tete | Hockey |
| 7 | Shri Abhishek | Hockey |
| 8 | Shri Sanjay | Hockey |
| 9 | Shri Jarmanpreet Singh | Hockey |
| 10 | Shri Sukhjeet Singh | Hockey |
| 11 | Shri Rakesh Kumar | Para-Archery |
| 12 | Ms. Preeti Pal | Para-Athletics |
| 13 | Ms. Jeevanji Deepthi | Para-Athletics |
| 14 | Shri Ajeet Singh | Para-Athletics |
| 15 | Shri Sachin Sarjerao Khilari | Para-Athletics |
| 16 | Shri Dharambir | Para-Athletics |
| 17 | Shri Pranav Soorma | Para-Athletics |
| 18 | Shri H Hokato Sema | Para-Athletics |
| 19 | Ms. Simran | Para-Athletics |
| 20 | Shri Navdeep | Para-Athletics |
| 21 | Shri Nitesh Kumar | Para-Badminton |
| 22 | Ms. Thulasimathi Murugesan | Para-Badminton |
| 23 | Ms. Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan | Para-Badminton |
| 24 | Ms. Manisha Ramadass | Para-Badminton |
| 25 | Shri Kapil Parmar | Para-Judo |
| 26 | Ms. Mona Agarwal | Para-Shooting |
| 27 | Ms. Rubina Francis | Para-Shooting |
| 28 | Shri Swapnil Suresh Kusale | Shooting |
| 29 | Shri Sarabjot Singh | Shooting |
| 30 | Shri Abhay Singh | Squash |
| 31 | Shri Sajan Prakash | Swimming |
| 32 | Shri Aman | Wrestling |
Arjuna Awards (Lifetime) for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024
| S. No. | Name of the Sportsperson | Discipline |
| 1 | Shri Sucha Singh | Athletics |
| 2 | Shri Murlikant Rajaram Petkar | Para-Swimming |
Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games 2024
- Regular Category:
| S. No. | Name of the Coach | Discipline |
| 1 | Shri Subhash Rana | Para-Shooting |
| 2 | Ms. Deepali Deshpande | Shooting |
| 3 | Shri Sandeep Sangwan | Hockey |
- Lifetime Category:
| S. No. | Name of the Coach | Discipline |
| 1 | Shri S Muralidharan | Badminton |
| 2 | Shri Armando Agnelo Colaco | Football |
- Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar
| S. No. | Name of the Entity |
| Physical Education Foundation of India |
(vi) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2024:
| S. No. | Name of University | |
| 1 | Chandigarh University | Overall winner University |
| 2 | Lovely Professional University, (PB) | 1st runner up University |
| 3 | Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar | 2nd runner up University |
National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.
‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award’ is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over the period of the previous four years.
‘Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games’ is given for good performance over a period of the previous four years and for showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.
Arjuna Award (Lifetime) is given to honour and motivate those sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to promotion of sports even after their retirement from active sporting career.
‘Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games’ is given to coaches for doing outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and for enabling sportspersons to excel in International events.
The overall top performing university in Khelo India University Games is given the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy.
The applications were invited online and sportspersons/coaches/entities were permitted to self-apply through a dedicated Online Portal. A large number of applications were received for these awards this year, which were considered by the Selection Committee headed by Justice (Retd.) V. Ramasubramanian, Supreme Court of India and consisting members from eminent sportspersons, persons having experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.
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