Harvinder Singh recently became the first Para Archer to win the Padma Shri award.
The Padma Shri award has long been evidence of the achievements in different spheres of life. And why it won’t be? The award is the fourth highest civilian award since its inception in 1954, after Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, and Padma Bhushan. In this article, we will mainly focus on the sports.
Balbir Singh Dosanjh, the legendary hockey player, received the first Padma Shri in sports, five years after the award was originally instituted. Balbir Singh won three Olympic gold medals in 1948, 1952, and 1956. But that was not all, the prize was then expanded to include more players.
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The award’s sporting narrative expanded dramatically in 1959 when Mihir Sen (Swimming ) and Milkha Singh (Athletics ) broke new ground, becoming the first non-hockey players to be recognized. Arati Saha then made history as the first woman awardee, diving into the spotlight in swimming.
This proud tradition has been continued in recent years, and in 2025, India’s sporting diversity will be included in the Padma Shri roster. The 2025 award includes cricket legend Ravichandran Ashwin , football icon I.M. Vijayan and Paralympic gold medalist Harvinder Singh – the first para archer to receive the honour.
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List of Indian players honoured with Padma Shri award:
S.No Name Year 1 Limba Ram 2012 2 Deepika Kumari 2016 3 Bombayla Devi Laishram 2019 4 Tarundeep Rai 2020
S.No Name Year 1 Shri Kaur Singh 1983 2 Shri Aspi Adajania 1992 3 Smt. M.C. Mary Kom 2006 4 Shri Vijender 2009 5 Shri Ng. Dingko Singh 2013
S.No Name Year 1 Anupama Gokhale 1986 2 Bhagyashree Thipsay 1987 3 Viswanathan Anand 1988 4 Harika Dronavalli 2019
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S.No Name Year 1 Vijay Hazare 1960 2 Jasu Patel 1960 3 Nari Contractor 1962 4 Polly Umrigar 1962 5 Syed Mushtaq Ali 1963 6 M. J. Gopalan 1964 7 D. B. Deodhar 1965 8 Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi 1967 9 Chandu Borde 1969 10 Bishan Singh Bedi 1970 11 E. A. S. Prasanna 1970 12 Gundappa Viswanath 1971 13 B. S. Chandrasekhar 1972 14 Ajit Wadekar 1972 15 Farokh Engineer 1973 16 Pankaj Roy 1975 17 Syed Kirmani 1982 18 Kapil Dev 1982 19 Dilip Vengsarkar 1987 20 Mohammad Azharuddin 1988 21 Sachin Tendulkar 1999 22 Rahul Dravid 2004 23 Sourav Ganguly 2004 24 Anil Kumble 2005 25 MS Dhoni 2009 26 Harbhajan Singh 2009 27 Virender Sehwag 2010 28 VVS Laxman 2011 29 Jhulan Goswami 2012 30 Anjum Chopra 2014 31 Yuvraj Singh 2014 32 Mithali Raj 2015 33 Virat Kohli 2017 34 Gautam Gambhir 2019 35 Zaheer Khan 2020 36 Ravichandran Ashwin 2025
S.No Name Year 1 Gostha Pal 1962 2 Sailen Manna 1971 3 Chuni Goswami 1984 4 P. K. Banerjee 1990 5 Bhaichung Bhutia 2008 6 Sunil Chhetri 2019 7 Oinam Bembem Devi (Football – Women’s) 2020 8 M. P. Ganesh 2020 9 Anitha Pauldurai 2021 10 K. Y. Venkatesh 2021 11 Sankaranarayana Menon 2022 12 Brahmanand Sankhwalkar 2022 13 S. R. D. Prasad 2023 14 K. Shanathoiba Sharma 2023 15 Gurcharan Singh 2023 16 I. M. Vijayan 2025
S.No Name Year 1 Balbir Singh Sr. 1957 2 K. D. Singh 1958 3 M. J. Gopalan (Cricket/Hockey) 1964 4 Charanjit Singh 1964 5 Kishan Lal 1966 6 Shankar Lakshman 1967 7 Prithipal Singh 1967 8 Moin-ul-Haq 1970 9 Leslie Claudius 1971 10 Vasudevan Baskaran 1981 11 Eliza Nelson 1983 12 Mohammad Shahid 1986 13 Selma D’Silva 1991 14 Ajit Pal Singh 1992 15 Pargat Singh 1998 16 Dhanraj Pillay 2001 17 Mukesh Kumar 2003 18 Dilip Tirkey 2004 19 Balbir Singh Kullar 2009 20 Ignace Tirkey 2010 21 Zafar Iqbal 2012 22 Saba Anjum Karim 2015 23 Sardara Singh 2015 24 P. R. Sreejesh 2017 25 Rani Rampal (Women’s) 2020 26 Vandana Katariya (Women’s) 2022 27 Harbinder Singh 2024
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Mountaineering
S.No Name Year 1 Sonam Gyatso 1962 2 Nawang Gombu 1964 3 H. P. S. Ahluwalia 1965 4 Avtar Singh Cheema 1965 5 Phu Dorjee 1965 6 Harish Chandra Singh Rawat 1965 7 Chandra Prakash Vohra 1965 8 Sonam Wangyal 1965 9 Narendra Kumar 1965 10 Gurdial Singh 1967 11 Harsh Vardhan Bahuguna 1972 12 Roshan Lal Anand 1976 13 Phu Dorjee 1984 14 Bachendri Pal 1984 15 Chandraprabha Aitwal 1990 16 Santosh Yadav 2000 17 Kanhaya Lal Pokhriyal 2003 18 Mohan Singh Gunjyal 2006 19 Harbhajan Singh (mountaineer) 2011 20 Premlata Agrawal 2013 21 Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu 2014 22 Mamta Sodha 2014 23 Arunima Sinha 2015 24 Anshu Jamsenpa 2021
S.No Name Year 1 Aspy Adajania (Coach) 1992 2 Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore 2005 3 Gagan Narang 2011 4 Vijay Kumar 2013 5 Jitu Rai 2020
S.No Name Year 1 Mihir Sen 1959 2 Arati Saha 1960 3 Bula Choudhury 2008
S.No Name Year 1 Sharath Kamal 2019 2 Mouma Das 2021
S.No Name Year 1 Ramanathan Krishnan 1962 2 Ghaus Mohammad 1971 3 Vijay Amritraj 1983 4 Ramesh Krishnan 1998 5 Mahesh Bhupathi 2001 6 Leander Paes 2001 7 Sania Mirza 2006 8 Somdev Devvarman 2018 9 Rohan Bopanna 2024
S.No Name Year 1 Bahadur Singh Chauhan 1983 2 Karnam Malleswari 1999 3 Saikhom Mirabai Chanu 2018 4 Purnima Mahato 2024
Para Sports
S.No Name Year 1 Taranath Narayan Shenoy – Para Swimming 1990 2 Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla – Para Athletics 2001 3 Devendra Jhajharia – Para Athletics 2012 4 Girisha Nagarajegowda – Para Athletics 2013 5 Deepa Malik – Para Athletics 2017 6 Mariyappan Thangavelu – Para Athletics 2017 7 Sumit Antil – Para Athletics (Javelin) 2022 8 Pramod Bhagat – Para Badminton 2022 9 Faisal Ali Dar – Para Badminton 2022 10 Avani Lekhara – Para Shooting 2022 11 Satendra Singh Lohiya – Para Athletics (Discus) 2024 12 Harvinder Singh – Para Archery 2025 13 H. Boniface Prabhu – Wheelchair Tennis 2014
Other Sports
S.No Sport Name Year 1 Billiards Wilson Jones 1965 2 Billiards Geet Sethi 1986 3 Billiards Pankaj Advani 2009 4 Administration Verghese Kurien 1965 5 Administration Gulshan Rai 1990 6 Administration Gopal Purushottam Phadke 2003 7 Administration S. P. Nimbalkar 2004 8 Administration Prabhakar Vaidya 2012 9 Equestrian Raghubir Singh 1983 10 Sports Journalism D. K. Khullar 1984 11 Sports Journalism Sushil Doshi 2016 12 Carrom Om Prakesh Agrawal 1985 13 Umpiring (Cricket) Swaroop Kishen 1986 14 Wushu Gurmayum Anita Devi 2004 15 Bodybuilding Premchand Degra 1990 16 Gymnastics Dipa Karmakar 2017 17 Golf Jeev Milkha Singh 2007 18 Kabaddi Sunil Dabas (Coach) 2014 19 Kabaddi Ajay Thakur 2019 20 Basketball Prashanti Singh 2019 21 Blind Cricket Shekhar Naik 2017 22 Motorsport Narain Karthikeyan 2010 23 Squash Bhuvneshwari Kumari 2001 24 Squash Dipika Pallikal 2014 25 Squash Joshna Chinappa 2024 26 Skydiving Rachel Thomas 2005 27 Skydiving Shital Mahajan 2011 28 Rowing Bajrang Lal Takhar 2013
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