Rani Rampal wins ‘World Games Athlete of the Year’ award

The year 2020 has started on a very positive note for the Indian women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal. The captain of the Indian women’s hockey team has won the World ‘Games Athlete of the Year’ award just days after she was conferred with the Padma Shri award, fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India.

Rani Rampal, captain of the Indian women’s hockey team, has become the first-ever hockey player to win the prestigious ‘World Games Athlete of the Year’ award. This award is given for outstanding performance, social concern, and good behavior. ‘The World Games’ announced the winner on Thursday following 20 days of voting by sports lovers from all over the world.

The World Games statement said, ‘Indian hockey’s superstar Rani is the World Games Athlete of the Year 2019. Huge congratulations.”

The statement by World games further clarified that Rani emerged as the clear winner in the race to become the Player of the Year with an impressive number of 199,477 votes. In 20 days in January, sports lovers around the world voted for their favorite player. During this time, a total of 705,610 votes were cast during the poll.

Last year India won the FIH Series Finals and Rani was adjudged the best player of the tournament. Also under the leadership of Rani, India qualified for the Olympic Games for the third time in the history of the prestigious tournament.

Rani, who was recently selected for the Padma Shri award, said, “I dedicate this award to the entire hockey fraternity, my team, and my country. This success has only become possible with the love and support from hockey lovers, fans, my team, coaches, Hockey India, my government, friends from Bollywood, fellow sportspersons and my countrymen who have continuously voted for me.”

She also mentioned FIH in her statement as she said, “Special thanks to FIH for nominating me for this prestigious award. Thank you to The World Games Federation for this recognition.”

A total of 25 players from 25 different sports were nominated for this award by global bodies of their respective sports. The FIH had recommended the name of Rani.