Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin and hockey icon PR Sreejesh have been awarded the prestigious Padma Awards. Ashwin has been honoured with Padma Shri, while Sreejesh has been conferred with the Padma Bhushan.
They are among the five sports personalities to be honoured with the civilian awards. Paralympic gold medallist Harvinder Singh (Padma Shri), former footballer Inivalappil Mani Vijayan (Padma Shri) and well-known athletics coach Satyapal Singh (Padma Shri) have also been awarded the prestigious awards.
For 2025, President Droupadi Murmu has approved 139 Padma Awards including a duo case. The duo case is counted as one award.
Ashwin has been a legend for Indian cricket during his playing days. Ashwin is an ODI World Cup 2011 and Champions trophy 2013 winner with the Indian team. The spin all-rounder has been one of the biggest match-winners for the Indian team during his playing days.
The star all-rounder is India's second-highest wicket-taker in tests with 537 scalps to his name in 106 matches. Ashwin also has 3503 runs to his name and six centuries in the red-ball format. He has 156 ODI wickets and 72 T20I scalps too.
Meanwhile, Sreejesh is an Indian hockey legend too. He has played a crucial role in India winning back-to-back bronze medals at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. India had defeated Germany in the bronze medal playoff in the Tokyo Games, while they outclassed Spain in Paris in 2024.
Harvinder Singh won a historic gold medal in the Paralympic Games 2024 in Archery. He had become the first Indian to win a gold in Archery at the Paralympic Games after defeating Poland's Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 in the final of the Men's Individual Recurve Open.
Inivalappil Mani Vijayan is India's former football captain, having played alongside Bhaichung Bhutia as a striker in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was also named the Indian Player of the Year in 1993, 1997 and 1999. He has also won an Arjuna Award in 2003. Meanwhile, Satyapal is an Indian para-athletics coach and is also the head of the Target Olympic Medal Sports Academy.