No Khel Ratna, but Tejaswin Shankar among 17 athletes to win Arjuna Awards

Tejaswin Shankar was amongst the 17 athletes to win the Arjun Awards 2025, the sports ministry announced on Tuesday, August 18. However, no one was named to win the prestigious Khel Ratna award.

In Short

• Tejaswin won a historic bronze in Decathlon at CWG 2026
• Divya Deshmukh, Gayatri Gopichand among other winners
• Sports minstry cited a review of Arjuna Award selections as reason for delay

Tejaswin Shankar leads a list of 17 athletes who will be conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Awards 2025, the sports ministry announced on Tuesday, August 18. However, there was no one named as the recipient of the Khel Ratna award.

World Cup-winning chess player Divya Deshmukh and shuttler Gayatri Gopichand joined Shankar in the elite list. The Arjuna Award list also features several prominent names, including chess Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, badminton player Treesa Jolly, who partners Gayatri Gopichand in women's doubles, Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist boxer Narender, and promising deaf shooter Dhanush Srikanth.

Former India footballer I Arumainayagam, a member of the 1962 Asian Games gold-winning team, has been honoured with the Arjuna Award under the 'Lifetime Achievement' category.

“Based on the recommendations of the Selection Committee chaired by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, the Government has decided to confer awards on the following sportspersons, coaches and entities under various categories,” read the statement from the ministry.

Divya Deshmukh, who became India's fourth woman Grandmaster, earned the prestigious title after her triumph at the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 in Batumi, Georgia. Meanwhile, Tejaswin Shankar created history at the Commonwealth Games by securing bronze in the decathlon, becoming the first Indian athlete to win a medal in the event at the Games.

NATIONAL SPORTS AWARDS 2025: FULL LIST OF WINNERS

Arjuna Award 2025

Tejaswin Shankar – Athletics
Muhammed Ajmal V – Athletics
Priyanka Goswami – Athletics
Treesa Jolly – Badminton
Pullela Gayatri Gopichand – Badminton
Narender – Boxing
Vidit Santosh Gujarathi – Chess
Divya Jitendra Deshmukh – Chess
Dhanush Srikanth – Deaf Shooting
Lalremsiami – Hockey
Rajkumar Pal – Hockey
Surjeet – Kabaddi
Pooja – Kabaddi
Rudransh Khandelwal – Para-Shooting
Ekta Bhyan – Para Athletics
Arvind Singh – Rowing
Akhil Sheoran – Shooting

Arjuna Award (Lifetime) 2025
I. Arumainayagam – Football

Dronacharya Award 2025 — Regular Category

Parveer Singh – Athletics
Chhote Lal Yadav – Boxing
Neha Nandkumar Chavan – Shooting
Dronacharya Award 2025 — Lifetime Category
Dharmendra Singh Yadav – Boxing
Virender Kumar – Wrestling

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar 2025

Army Paralympic Node, Pune – Sports Promotion and Development

WHY THE ARJUNA AWARDS WERE DELAYED

India’s sporting fraternity is growing increasingly uneasy over an unusual delay in one of the country’s biggest annual honours. The National Sports Awards, which recognise outstanding performances across disciplines, are yet to be formally announced despite the selection committee submitting its recommendations around six months ago.

The Sports Ministry, which has the final authority to approve the recommendations, has cited a fresh review of the Arjuna Award selections as the reason behind the hold-up.

Sources within the Ministry have maintained that the additional scrutiny is part of the process and is being carried out to “preserve the integrity of the awards”. But the prolonged uncertainty has done little to ease concerns among athletes who are awaiting official confirmation.

“It is unfortunate that no announcement has come so far. It is de-motivating for the athletes, especially because unofficially most people come to know whether they have been shortlisted or not,” an Olympic medallist and Khel Ratna awardee told PTI.

The National Sports Awards ceremony is traditionally hosted at Rashtrapati Bhavan, although its date has not followed a consistent schedule in recent years.

For decades, August 29 was the customary date for the ceremony, coinciding with National Sports Day and the birth anniversary of legendary Indian hockey player Major Dhyan Chand.

That convention changed after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the awards were presented virtually because of health restrictions. Since then, the ceremony has been scheduled according to the sporting calendar rather than being tied to a particular date.

The awards have also been delayed on several occasions to account for the Olympics and other major multi-sport competitions. In 2025, for instance, the ceremony was eventually held on January 17, well after the traditional August 29 date.

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