Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra who made the entire nation proud along with legendary players like Mithali Raj and Sunil Chhetri’s name has been recommended for the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
Apart from these names, sportsperson belonging to different events which include the likes of Ravi Dahiya, PR Sreejesh, and Lovlina Borgohain who did wonders for team India in Olympics 2020 are in the list of contention to receive Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
Indian Cricketer Shikhar Dhawan’s name has been recommended for Arjuna Award. Let’s compile those names who are recommended for Khel Ratna Award in detail.
- Neeraj Chopra( Athletics)
- Ravi Dahiya(Wrestling)
- PR Sreejesh( Hockey)
- Sunil Chhetri( Football)
- Mithali Raj(Cricket)
- Sumit-Antil(Para-Javelin)
- Avani Lekhara(Para-Shooting)
- Krishna Nagar(Para-Badminton)
- Lovlina Borgohain(Boxing)
- M Narwal(Para-Shooting)
Indian players have made the entire nation proud in the last edition of the Olympics and Paralympics where they clinched 7 and 19 medals respectively. The credit for this stupendous performance should be given to respective federations along with TOPS(Target Olympics Podium Scheme) and the Sports Authority of India.
Target Olympics Podium Scheme includes those athletes who are identified as potential medal winners and the players like Neeraj Chopra, Vineesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, PV Sindhu were part of those schemes, and out of these four names, three have managed to win medals in Olympics.
The kind of support these players have received post their return to India speaks a volume about a new India we are witnessing that is eagerly waiting to change its poor track record of winning medals in the Olympics and emerge as a Sporting powerhouse. A Country that treats a game like “Cricket” as religion has already initiated so many leagues like ISL, PKL, FIH for promoting football, Kabbadi, and Hockey so that other sports can grow in a similar fashion.
Indian Sporting ecosystem is still far behind China, US, UK, and Australia who always bag the highest number of medals in Olympics and huge amount of work needs to done by Sports Ministry so that more medals can be yielded at the highest level.
