The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) announced the National Sports Awards 2025 with 17 sportspersons being recognised for the prestigious Arjuna Awards.

World Cup winning chess player Divya Deshmukh, badminton player Gayatri Gopichand, and Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver-medallist boxer Narender are among the 17 sportspersons recognised for their excellence in their respective sports. Also on the Arjuna Award nomination list are Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, Gayatri Gopichand’s women’s doubles partner Treesa Jolly, decathlete and high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, and young deaf rifle shooter Dhanush Srikanth.

“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,” the Ministry said in a release.

The Sports Ministry, however, did not name any athlete for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award this year.

1962 Asian Games gold medallist footballer I Arumainayagam was conferred the Arjuna Award for ‘Lifetime Achievement’.

Coaches Parveer Singh (Athletics) , Chhote Lal Yadav (Boxing), Neha Nandkumar Chavan (Shooting) were recognised with the ‘Dronacharya Award’ for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games.

The ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar’ 2025 was conferred to the Army Paralympic Node, Pune. It is is given to corporate entity (Public/Private), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), “who have played a visible role in the area of sports promotion and development”.

With PTI inputs