National Sports Awards 2025 Announced by Sports Ministry
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2025, India's highest sporting honours, conferred annually by the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan. For 2025, the selection committee recommended 17 athletes for the Arjuna Award, five coaches for the Dronacharya Award, and one organisation for the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar. Notably, no athlete was chosen for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2025 — the first time the top honour has gone unawarded since 2014. Decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, badminton pair Treesa Jolly–Gayatri Gopichand, and boxer Narender Berwal headline the Arjuna Award list, while the Lifetime Arjuna Award went to veteran footballer I. Arumainayagam, a gold medallist from the 1962 Asian Games. The Dronacharya Award (Regular) went to Parveer Singh (Athletics), Chhote Lal Yadav (Boxing) and Neha Nandkumar Chavan (Shooting), while the Lifetime category honoured Dharmendra Singh Yadav (Boxing) and Virender Kumar (Wrestling). The Army Paralympic Node, Pune received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar 2025 for its work training para-athletes for international competitions.
Khel Ratna instituted 1991-92; first recipient Viswanathan Anand | Renamed Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in August 2021 | National Sports Day is 29 August (Dhyan Chand's birth anniversary) | Arjuna Award instituted 1961; Dronacharya Award instituted 1985