Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award: List of all winners

The Khel Ratna Award, officially known as the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award (formerly the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award), is the highest sporting honour in India. It is presented annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, to recognize exceptional performances in sports.

Recipients of the Khel Ratna Award are selected by a committee formed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, based on their “spectacular and most outstanding performance in sports over four years” at the international level. As of 2020, the award includes a medallion, a certificate and a cash prize of ₹25 lakh.

Instituted in 1991–1992, the award was given for the performance by a sportsperson in a year. Based on the suggestions provided by the 2014 award selection committee, the Ministry revised the criteria in February 2015 to consider the performance over four years. The nominations for a given year are accepted till 30 April or the last working day of April with not more than two sportspersons nominated for each sports discipline.

A 12-member committee assesses the performance of athletes in various international events, including the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games. After evaluation, the committee submits their recommendations to the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports for approval. From 1991 to 2021, the award was named after Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991), the sixth Prime Minister of India.

Since August 6, 2021, the award has been named after Major Dhyanchand (1905–79), an Indian field hockey player, widely regarded as one of the greatest field hockey players of all time, who scored more than 1000 goals over a career that spanned over 20 years.

The award’s first recipient was chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, who was honoured for the performance in 1991–92. In 2001, Olympic shooter Abhinav Bindra, then aged 18, became the award’s youngest recipient.

As of 2023, there have been 59 recipients across 16 sports disciplines: athletics, badminton, billiards, boxing, chess, cricket, field hockey, football, gymnastics, para-athletics, para-badminton, para-shooting, shooting, snooker, table tennis, tennis, wrestling, weightlifting, and yacht racing.

On that note, let’s have a look at the full list of winners of the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award.

Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award winners

Year	Receiver	Discipline
1991–1992	Viswanathan Anand	Chess
1992–1993	Geet Sethi	Billiards
1993–1994	Homi Motivala	Yachting
1993–1994	Pushpendra Kumar Garg	Yachting
1994–1995	Karnam Malleswari	Weightlifting
1995–1996	Nameirakpam Kunjarani	Weightlifting
1996–1997	Leander Paes	Tennis
1997–1998	Sachin Tendulkar	Cricket
1998–1999	Jyotirmoyee Sikdar	Athletics
1999–2000	Dhanraj Pillay	Hockey
2000–2001	Pullela Gopichand	Badminton
2001	Abhinav Bindra	Shooting
2002	K. M. Beenamol	Athletics
2002	Anjali Bhagwat	Shooting
2003	Anju Bobby George	Athletics
2004	Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore	Shooting
2005	Pankaj Advani	Billiards and Snooker
2006	Manavjit Singh Sandhu	Shooting
2007	Mahendra Singh Dhoni	Cricket
2009	Mary Kom	Boxing
2009	Vijender Singh	Boxing
2009	Sushil Kumar	Freestyle wrestling
2010	Saina Nehwal	Badminton
2011	Gagan Narang	Shooting
2012	Vijay Kumar	Shooting
2012	Yogeshwar Dutt	Freestyle wrestling
2013	Ronjan Sodhi	Shooting
2015	Sania Mirza	Tennis
2016	PV Sindhu	Badminton
2016	Dipa Karmakar	Gymnastics
2016	Jitu Rai	Shooting
2016	Sakshi Malik	Freestyle wrestling
2017	Devendra Jhajharia	Para-athletics (javelin)
2017	Sardara Singh	Hockey
2018	Saikhom Mirabai Chanu	Weightlifting
2018	Virat Kohli	Cricket
2019	Deepa Malik	Paral-athletics (shot put, javelin, others)
2019	Bajrang Punia	Freestyle wrestling
2020	Manika Batra	Table Tennis
2020	Rohit Sharma	Cricket
2020	Mariyappan Thangavelu	Para-athletics (high jump)
2020	Vinesh Phogat	Freestyle wrestling
2020	Rani Rampal	Hockey
2021	Neeraj Chopra	Athletics
2021	Ravi Kumar Dahiya	Freestyle wrestling
2021	Lovlina Borgohain	Boxing
2021	P. R. Sreejesh	Hockey
2021	Avani Lekhara	Para-shooting
2021	Sumit Antil	Para-athletics
2021	Pramod Bhagat	Para-badminton
2021	Krishna Nagar	Para-badminton
2021	Manish Narwal	Para-shooting
2021	Mithali Raj	Cricket
2021	Sunil Chhetri	Football
2021	Manpreet Singh	Hockey
2022	Sharath Kamal	Table Tennis
2023	Chirag Shetty	Badminton
2023	Satwiksairaj Rankireddy	Badminton
2024	Manu Bhaker	Shooting
2024	D Gukesh	Chess
2024	Harmanpreet Singh	Hockey
2024	Praveen Kumar	Para-athletics (High Jump)

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