Double Olympic medalist at the Paris Olympics 2024 Manu Bhaker and world chess champion D Gukesh will be honoured with he Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award which is the highest sporting honour in the country on January 17.
In addition to Bhaker and Gukesh, Indian men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and para-athlete Praveen Kumar are the other two names nominated for the award.
“The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organised function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 17th January, 2025 (Friday) at 1100 hours,” the sports ministry said in a press release
“Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, Government has decided to confer awards upon the following sportspersons, coaches, university and entity,” the ministry statement further added.
The 22-year-old Bhaker became independent India’s first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics with her bronze-winning show in the 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team events in August.
In the same Games, Hamranpreet led the Indian hockey team to its second consecutive bronze medal.
The 18-year-old Gukesh, on the other hand, became the youngest ever World champion while also helping the Indian team win a historic gold in the Chess Olympiad last year.
The fourth recipient will be para high-jumper Praveen, who was crowned the T64 champion in the Paris Paralympics. The T64 classification is for athletes who have one or both legs missing below the knee and rely on a prosthetic leg for running.
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