Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy to be honoured with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna | Full list of winners

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India's badminton stars Chirag Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj won the Major Dhyan Khel Ratna award. Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2023 today. Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, the government decided to confer awards upon sportspersons, coaches and entities. The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organised function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024 (Tuesday) at 11 am IST.

For the unversed, Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is given to sportspersons with spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports over the course of last four years. Vishwanathan Anand was the first winner of this award in 1991-92 for his exceptional performance in Chess. Among cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar was the first player to be conferred with the Khel Ratna while MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Mithali Raj have been the others to win it.

Coming back to Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, the duo rose to the top of the BWF rankings earlier this year in October after winning the gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. The duo has been exceptional since 2022 winning five BWF World tour titles, including the Indian Open, French Open, Swiss Open, Indonesia Open, and Korea Open.

Full list of winners of Major Dhyan Khel Ratna award:

1. Sharath Kamal - Table tennis
2. Manpreet Singh - Hockey
3. Sunil Chhetri - Football
4. Mithali Raj - Cricket
5. Manish Narwal - Paralympic shooting
6. Krishna Nagar - Para-badminton
7. Pramod Bhagat - Para-badminton
8. Sumit Antil - Para-athletics
9. Avani Lekhara - Paralympic shooting
10. PR Sreejesh - Hockey
11. Lovlina Borgohain - Boxing
12. Ravi Kumar Dahiya - Freestyle wrestling
13. Neeraj Chopra - Athletics
14. Rani Rampal - Hockey
15. Rohit Sharma - Cricket
16. Mariyappan Thangavelu - Paralympic high jump
17. Manika Batra - Table tennis
18. Vinesh Phogat - Freestyle wrestling
19. Bajrang Punia - Freestyle wrestling
20. Deepa Malik - Paralympic (shot put, javelin, others)
21. Virat Kohli - Cricket
22. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu - Weightlifting
23. Sardara Singh - Hockey
24. Devendra Jhajharia - Paralympic javelin
25. PV Sindhu - Badminton
26. Sakshi Malik - Freestyle wrestling
27. Jitu Rai - Shooting
28. Dipa Karmakar - Gymnastics
29. Sania Mirza - Tennis
30. Ronjan Sodhi - Shooting
31. Yogeshwar Dutt - Freestyle wrestling
32. Vijay Kumar - Shooting
33. Gagan Narang - Shooting
34. Saina Nehwal - Badminton
35. Sushil Kumar - Freestyle wrestling
36. Vijender Singh - Boxing
37. Mary Kom - Boxing
38. Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Cricket
39. Manavjit Singh Sandhu - Shooting
40. Pankaj Advani - Billiards and Snooker
41. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore - Shooting
42. Anju Bobby George - Athletics
43. Anjali Bhagwat - Shooting
44. KM Beenamol - Athletics
45. Abhinav Bindra - Shooting
46. Pullela Gopichand - Badminton
47. Dhanraj Pillay - Hockey
48. Jyotirmoyee Sikdar - Athletics
49. Sachin Tendulkar - Cricket
50. Leander Paes - Tennis
51. Nameirakpam Kunjarani - Weightlifting
52. Karnam Malleswari - Weightlifting
53. Pushpendra Kumar Garg - Yachting (Team event)
54. Homi Motivala - Yachting (Team event)
55. Geet Sethi - Billiards
56. Viswanathan Anand - Chess