President Droupadi Murmu Presents National Sports Awards: Tejaswin Shankar, Divya Deshmukh Win Arjuna Award

President Droupadi Murmu distributed the National Sports Awards 2025 on 13th November 2026. A total of seventeen athletes were awarded the Arjuna Awards, which include decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, and chess players Divya Deshmukh and Vidit Gujrathi. Coaches were also awarded the Dronacharya Awards and former footballer I. Arumainayagam was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award. However, none of the athletes were awarded the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna for 2025. The recipients were announced by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on 18th August 2026.

National Sports Awards 2025 Winners

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had announced the winners on 18th August 2026. After the recommendations from selection committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra. These recommendations were submitted in December 2025. This resulted in selecting seventeen athletes to receive the Arjuna Award, down from an initial recommendation of twenty-four.

Category Wise Winners Full List

1. Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games 2025

Sr. No	Name of Sportsperon	Discipline
1	Tejaswin Shankar	Athletics
2	Muhammed Ajmal V	Athletics
3	Priyanka Goswami	Athletics
4	Treesa Jolly	Badminton
5	Pullela Gayatri Gopichand	Badminton
6	Narender	Boxing
7	Vidit Santosh Gujarathi	Chess
8	Divya Jitendra Deshmukh	Chess
9	Dhanush Srikanth	Deaf Shooting
10	Lalremsiami	Hockey
11	Rajkumar Pal	Hockey
12	Surjeet	Kabaddi
13	Pooja	Kabaddi
14	Rudransh Khandelwal	Para-Shooting
15	Ekta Bhyan	Para-Athletics
16	Arvind Singh	Rowing
17	Akhil Sheoran	Shooting

2. Arjuna Award (Lifetime) 2025

Sr. No	Name of Sportsperon	Discipline
1	I. Arumainayagam	Football

3. Dronacharya Award – Regular Category 2025

Sr. No	Name of Sportsperon	Discipline
1	Parveer Singh	Athletics
2	Chhote Lal Yadav	Boxing
3	Neha Nandkumar Chavan	Shooting

4. Dronacharya Award – Lifetime Category 2025

Sr. No	Name of Sportsperon	Discipline
1	Dharmendra Singh Yadav	Boxing
2	Virender Kumar	Wrestling

5. Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2025

Sr. No	Name of Entity	Place
1	Army Paralympic Nod	Pune

No Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Recipients

None of the athletes were chosen to receive the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. This is the first time since 2014 that the nation’s most prestigious sporting award has gone unawarded. Only the third time it has happened since the award was created in 1991-92.

The last time the Khel Ratna awards were given out was in 2024 to the following four athletes:

D. Gukesh – Chess
Harmanpreet Singh – Hockey
Praveen Kumar – Para-Athletics
Manu Bhaker – Shooting

What are the National Sports Awards are managed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. They recognise the excellent achievements of athletes, coaches and organisations related to sports.

The main awards are,

Award	Purpose	Established
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna	Highest sporting award for excellent performance	1991-92
Arjuna Award	Recognises excellent performance of athletes	1961
Dronacharya Award	Recognises excellence in coach	1985
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar	Recognises contribution to promoting sports	2009