President of India Droupadi Murmu presented the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award to India’s top badminton men’s doubles team, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Tuesday. The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports bestows the highest sporting honour in the nation, the Khel Ratna, on winners each year. The President of India presents the awards to the nominees. Three Badminton World Federation (BWF) titles have been won this year by Satwiksairaj and Chirag, also referred to as “Sat-Chi”: the Switzerland Open, the Indonesia Open, and the Korea Open. They also won the gold in badminton for India at the Asian Games in Hangzhou and the Asian Championships in April, marking a historic first for the sport.
In October, the pair achieved a first in Indian badminton history when they were ranked number one in the world by the BWF rankings for doubles. The Indian shuttlers contributed to the nation’s historic, paradigm-shifting Thomas Cup victory last year. They also won a bronze at the World Championships and a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The Khel Ratna award has been given to five shuttlers thus far: Pramod Bhagat (2021), Krishna Nagar (2021), Saina Nehwal (2010), Pullela Gopichand (2001), and PV Sindhu (2016). The Arjuna Award was given to a number of celebrities earlier in the ceremony, including wrestler Antim Panghal, archers Ojas Pravin Deotale, Sheetal Devi, and Aditi Gopichand Swami, and bowler Mohammed Shami of Star India.
The Arjuna Award, the second-highest athletic honour in India, is given for demonstrating leadership, sportsmanship, and discipline along with good performance over the course of the preceding four years. The following are the recipients of the Arjuna Award: Mohammed Shami in cricket, Ajay Reddy in blind cricket, Ojas Pravin Deotale in archery, Aditi Gopichand Swami in archery, Sheetal Devi in para archery, Parul Chaudhary and Murali Sreeshankar in athletics, Mohd Hussamuddin in boxing, R Vaishali in chess, Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwalla in equestrian, Diksha Dagar in golf, Krishan Bahadur Pathak in hockey, Sushila Chanu in hockey, Pinky in lawn ball, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar in shooting, Antim Panghal in wrestling, and Ayhika Mukherjee in table tennis.
