After receiving severe criticism, the Sports Ministry is set to honor Manu Bhaker with the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. Gukesh D, Harmanpreet Singh, and Praveen Kumar will also bag the award. While Manu and Harmanpreet have two Olympic Bronze medals to their name, Praveen has a Silver and a Gold medal at the Paralympics. Gukesh has a Chess Olympiad and is a World Champion.
A list of over 20 nominated athletes was announced a few weeks ago which did not feature Manu's name. A harsh criticism met the Indian Sports ministry for not even ensuring Bhaker's name in the shortlisting for the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The Sports Ministry accepted that it changed their decision.
"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 Indian Sports ministry said in a statement. All 4 athletes who will be awarded with the prestigeous award, have achieved a lot in their sport.
Achievements of Manu Bhaker, Gukesh D, Harmanpreet Singh, and Praveen Kumar
Harmanpreet Singh was a part of the Indian team that won the first Hockey Bronze medal for India at the Olympics since 1980. After the Tokyo Bronze win, Harmanpreet became Indian skipper and won a Silver medal at the Commonwealth Games. After winning gold medal at the Asian Games, Harman's men defended their Olympic Bronze in Paris.
On the other hand, Manu Bhaker became the only Indian athlete to win multiple medals in a single edition of the Olympics. She won Bronze medals in the Paris Olympics in the 10m air pistol individual and the 10m air pistol mixed team events respectively.
Praveen Kumar won the Silver and Gold medals for India in the T64 disability category in Tokyo and Paris Paralympics respectively. Gukesh had a stellar 2024 where he won the Chess Olympiad with the Men's team after winning his board in the same event. He beat Ding Liren to become the new Chess world champion in 2024.