New Delhi: The Government of India has announced the winners of the National Sports Awards 2023, which are given every year to honor the outstanding achievements of Indian athletes in various disciplines. The awards will be presented by the President of India at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024.
The highest sporting honor, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, will be conferred to badminton’s star pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who became the first Indian men’s doubles team to win a BWF Super 500 title at the Thailand Open 2023. They also reached the finals of the French Open 2023 and the semi-finals of the All England Open 2023.
The Arjuna Award, which recognizes excellence in sports, will be given to 26 athletes from various fields, including cricket, hockey, archery, athletics, boxing, chess, equestrian, golf, kabaddi, kho-kho, lawn balls, shooting, squash, table tennis, wrestling, wushu, para archery, and para canoeing.
Among the notable winners of the Arjuna Award is Mohammed Shami, the experienced fast bowler of the Indian cricket team, who took 20 wickets in four Tests against Australia in 2023, helping India retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He also picked up 15 wickets in the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand, which India won by eight wickets.
Another prominent recipient of the Arjuna Award is Ajay Kumar, the captain of the Indian blind cricket team, who led his side to victory in the Blind Cricket World Cup 2023, held in Pakistan. He scored 326 runs took 15 wickets in the tournament, and was named the player of the final.
The full list of the winners of the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards is given below:
| Award | Name | Sport |
|---|---|---|
| Khel Ratna | Chirag Shetty | Badminton |
| Khel Ratna | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy | Badminton |
| Arjuna | Mohammed Shami | Cricket |
| Arjuna | Ajay Kumar | Blind Cricket |
| Arjuna | Krishna Bahadur Pathak | Hockey |
| Arjuna | Sushila Chanu | Hockey |
| Arjuna | Ojas Praveen Devtale | Archery |
| Arjuna | Aditi Gopichand Swami | Archery |
| Arjuna | Sreeshankar | Athletics |
| Arjuna | Parul Chaudhary | Athletics |
| Arjuna | Mohammad Hussamuddin | Boxing |
| Arjuna | R Vaishali | Chess |
| Arjuna | Anush Aggarwal | Equestrian |
| Arjuna | Divyakriti Singh | Equestrian Dressage |
| Arjuna | Diksha Dagar | Golf |
| Arjuna | Pawan Kumar | Kabaddi |
| Arjuna | Ritu Negi | Kabaddi |
| Arjuna | Nasreen | Kho-Kho |
| Arjuna | Pinky | Lawn Balls |
| Arjuna | Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar | Shooting |
| Arjuna | Isha Singh | Shooting |
| Arjuna | Harinder Pal Singh | Squash |
| Arjuna | Ayhika Mukherjee | Table Tennis |
| Arjuna | Sunil Kumar | Wrestling |
| Arjuna | Final | Wrestling |
| Arjuna | Roshibina Devi | Wushu |
| Arjuna | Sheetal Devi | Para Archery |
| Arjuna | Prachi Yadav | Para Canoeing |
The Sports Ministry also announced the winners of the Dronacharya Award, which is given to coaches for their contribution to sports, and the Dhyan Chand Award, which is given to sportspersons for their lifetime achievement. The names of the recipients of these awards are as follows:
| Award | Name | Sport |
|---|---|---|
| Dronacharya | Pullela Gopichand | Badminton |
| Dronacharya | Bharat Arun | Cricket |
| Dronacharya | Graham Reid | Hockey |
| Dronacharya | Radhakrishnan Nair | Athletics |
| Dronacharya | Shiv Singh | Boxing |
| Dronacharya | R B Ramesh | Chess |
| Dronacharya | Jaspal Rana | Shooting |
| Dronacharya | Cyrus Poncha | Squash |
| Dronacharya | Jitender Kumar | Wrestling |
| Dronacharya | Kuldeep Handoo | Wushu |
| Dronacharya | Patrick Sangha | Para Athletics |
| Dronacharya | Gaurav Khanna | Para Badminton |
| Dhyan Chand | Anju Bobby George | Athletics |
| Dhyan Chand | Zaheer Khan | Cricket |
| Dhyan Chand | Sardar Singh | Hockey |
| Dhyan Chand | Mary Kom | Boxing |
| Dhyan Chand | Koneru Humpy | Chess |
| Dhyan Chand | Jeev Milkha Singh | Golf |
| Dhyan Chand | Anup Kumar | Kabaddi |
| Dhyan Chand | Gagan Narang | Shooting |
| Dhyan Chand | Sathiyan Gnanasekaran | Table Tennis |
| Dhyan Chand | Yogeshwar Dutt | Wrestling |
| Dhyan Chand | Devendra Jhajharia | Para Athletics |
| Dhyan Chand | Manoj Sarkar | Para Badminton |
The Sports Ministry congratulated all the winners and thanked them for their dedication and hard work in bringing laurels to the country. The ministry also expressed its hope that the awards will inspire more young talents to pursue sports as a career and achieve excellence at the national and international levels.
