What is the Arjuna Award?
Arjuna Award is one of the famous sports awards. It is given to individuals for their exemplary and exceptional performance in various categories of sports. The award is bestowed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.
The award is given to promote sports in India. It thereby acts as a catalyst to motivate sportspeople for their yielding performance. The cash prize given is 15 lakh INR. The award given is the Bronze Statue of ‘Arjuna with his Bow’ and a scroll.
Since 1961, this award has been given. In the year 1961, a total of 20 people received the Arjuna Award in various categories.
Disciplines of Arjuna Award
The disciplines in which the Arjuna Award is given are –
| Archery | Athletics |
| Badminton/Ball Badminton | Basketball |
| Billiards & Snooker | Boxing |
| Carrom | Chess |
| Cricket | Cycling |
| Equestrian | Football |
| Golf | Gymnastics |
| Hockey | Motorsports |
| Judo | Kabaddi |
| Mountaineering | Roller Skating |
| Rowing | Polo |
| Shooting | Squash |
| Swimming | Table Tennis |
| Volleyball | Weightlifting |
| Wrestling | Wushu |
| Yachting | Bodybuilding |
List of Arjuna Award Winners
Let us now see the list of Arjuna Award Winners starting from 2020:
| Year | Category | Arjuna Awardees | |||
| 2020 | Archery | Shri Atanu Das | |||
| 2020 | Athletics | Ms. Dutee Chand | |||
| 2020 | Badminton | Shri Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy | |||
| 2020 | Badminton | Shri Chirag Chandrasekhar Shetty | |||
| 2020 | Basketball | Shri Vishesh Bhriguvanshi | |||
| 2020 | Boxing | Subedar Manish Kaushik | |||
| 2020 | Boxing | Ms. Lovlina Borgohain | |||
| 2020 | Cricket | Shri Ishant Sharma | |||
| 2020 | Cricket | Ms. Deepti Sharma | |||
| 2020 | Equestrian | Shri Sawant Ajay Anant | |||
| 2020 | Football | Shri Sandesh Jhingan | |||
| 2020 | Golf | Ms. Aditi Ashok | |||
| 2020 | Hockey | Shri Akashdeep Singh | |||
| 2020 | Hockey | Ms. Deepika | |||
| 2020 | Hockey | Shivendra Pratap Santosh Singh | |||
| 2020 | Kabaddi | Shri Deepak | |||
| 2020 | Kho Kho | Shri Kale Sarika Sudhakar | |||
| 2020 | Rowing | Shri Dattu Baban Bhokanal | |||
| 2020 | Shooting | Ms. Manu Bhaker | |||
| 2020 | Shooting | Shri Saurabh Chaudhary | |||
| 2020 | Table Tennis | Ms. Madhurika Suhas Patkar | |||
| 2020 | Tennis | Shri Divij Sharan | |||
| 2020 | Winter Sports | Shri Shiva Keshavan | |||
| 2020 | Wrestling | Ms. Divya Kakran | |||
| 2020 | Wrestling | Shri Rahul Aware | |||
| 2020 | Para-Swimming | Shri Suyash Narayan Jadhav | |||
| 2020 | Para Athletics | Shri Sandeep | |||
| 2020 | Para Shooting | Shri Manish Narwal | |||
Arjuna Award Winners 2019 List
| Year | Category | Names |
| 2019 | Athletics | Sundar Singh Gurjar (Para Athlete) |
| 2019 | Athletics | Swapna Barman |
| 2019 | Athletics | Tajinder Pal Singh |
| 2019 | Athletics | Mohammed Anas Yahiya |
| 2019 | Badminton | Pramod Bhagat (Para Athlete) |
| 2019 | Badminton | Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth |
| 2019 | Boxing | Sonia Lather |
| 2019 | Cricket | Ravindra Jadeja |
| 2019 | Cricket | Poonam Yadav |
| 2019 | Equestrian | Fouaad Mirza |
| 2019 | Football | Gurpreet Singh Sandhu |
| 2019 | Hockey | Chinglensana Kangujam |
| 2019 | Kabaddi | Ajay Thakur |
| 2019 | Polo | Simran Singh Shergill |
| 2019 | Shooting | Anjum Moudgil |
| 2019 | Table Tennis | Harmeet Desai |
| 2019 | Wrestling | Pooja Dhanda |
Arjuna Award Winners List 2018
| 2018 | Athletics | Ankur Dhama (Para Athlete) |
| 2018 | Athletics | Neeraj Chopra |
| 2018 | Athletics | Hima Das |
| 2018 | Athletics | Naib Subedar Jinson Johnson |
| 2018 | Badminton | Ms. Nelakurthi Sikki Reddy |
| 2018 | Cricket | Virat Kohli |
| 2018 | Cricket | Smriti Mandhana |
| 2018 | Golf | Shubhankar Sharma |
| 2018 | Hockey | Manpreet Singh |
| 2018 | Hockey | Savita Punia |
| 2018 | Kabaddi | G. Pranav Sai Reddy |
| 2018 | Lawn Tennis | Rohan Bopanna |
| 2018 | Polo | Ravi Rathore |
| 2018 | Shooting | Shreyasi Singh |
| 2018 | Shooting | Ankur Mittal |
| 2018 | Shooting | Rahi Sarnobat |
| 2018 | Table Tennis | Manika Batra |
| 2018 | Table Tennis | Gnanasekaran Sathiyan |
| 2018 | Wrestling | Sumit Malik |
| 2018 | Wushu | Pooja Kadian |
| 2018 | Boxing | Subedar Satish Kumar |
| 2018 | Para-Badminton | Shri Manoj Sarkar |
Arjuna Award Winners 2017
| 2017 | Archery | Vennam Jyothi Surekha |
| 2017 | Athletics | Khushbir Kaur |
| 2017 | Athletics | Arokia Rajiv |
| 2017 | Athletics | Mariyappan Thangavelu (Para
Athlete) |
| 2017 | Athletics | Varun Singh Bhati (Para Athlete) |
| 2017 | Basketball | Prashanti Singh |
| 2017 | Boxing | Laishram Devendro Singh |
| 2017 | Cricket | Cheteshwar Pujara |
| 2017 | Cricket | Harmanpreet Kaur |
| 2017 | Football | Oinam Bembem Devi |
| 2017 | golf | Shiv Shankar Prasad Chawrasia |
| 2017 | Hockey | Somwarpet Vittalacharya Sunil |
| 2017 | Kabaddi | Jasvir Singh |
| 2017 | Lawn Tennis | Saketh Myneni |
| 2017 | Shooting | Prakash Nanjappa |
| 2017 | Table Tennis | Anthony Amalraj |
| 2017 | Wrestling | Satyawart Kadian |
Arjuna Awardees 2016 List
| 2016 | Archery | Rajat Chauhan |
| 2016 | Athletics | Lalita Shivaji Babar |
| 2016 | Billiards & Snooker | Sourav Kothari |
| 2016 | Boxing | Shiva Thapa |
| 2016 | Cricket | Ajinkya Rahane |
| 2016 | Football | Subrata Paul |
| 2016 | Hockey (Women) | Ms. Rani |
| 2016 | Hockey (Men) | Raghunath V.R. |
| 2016 | Shooting | Gurpreet Singh |
| 2016 | Shooting | Apurvi Chandela |
| 2016 | Table Tennis | Soumyajit Ghosh |
| 2016 | Wrestling | Ms. Vinesh |
| 2016 | Wrestling | Amit Kumar |
| 2016 | Para – Athletics | Sandeep Singh Maan |
| 2016 | Wrestling (Deaf) | Virender Singh |
Arjuna Awardees 2015 List
| 2015 | Cricket | Rohit Sharma |
| 2015 | Hockey | Parattu Raveendran Sreejesh |
| 2015 | Kabaddi | Manjeet Chhillar |
| 2015 | Shooting | Jitu Rai |
| 2015 | Archery | Naib Subedar Sandeep Kumar |
| 2015 | Athletics | Machettira Raju Poovamma |
| 2015 | Badminton | Kidambi Srikanth Nammalwar |
| 2015 | Boxing | Mandeep Jangra |
| 2015 | Gymnastics | Dipa Karmakar |
| 2015 | Kabaddi | Abhilasha Shashikant Mhatre |
| 2015 | Rowing | Sawarn Singh |
| 2015 | Weightlifting | Sathish Kumar Sivalingam |
| 2015 | Wrestling | Bajrang Kumar |
| 2015 | Wrestling | Babita Kumari |
| 2015 | Wushu | Yumnam Sanathoi Devi |
| 2015 | Swimming | Sharath M. Gayakwad (Paralympic Swimming) |
| 2015 | RollerSkating | Anup Kumar Yama |
Arjuna Award Winners List 2014
| 2014 | Archery | Abhishek Verma |
| 2014 | Basketball | Geetu Anna Jose |
| 2014 | Badminton | Valiyaveetil Diju |
| 2014 | Athletics | Tintu Luka |
| 2014 | Cricket | Ravichandran Ashwin |
| 2014 | Kabaddi | Mamta Pujari |
| 2014 | Rowing | Saji Thomas |
| 2014 | Shooting | Heena Sidhu |
| 2014 | Weightlifting | Renubala Chanu |
| 2014 | Wrestling | Sunil Kumar Rana |
| 2014 | Volleyball | Tom Joseph |
| 2014 | Squash | Anaka Alankamony |
Arjuna Award Winners List 2013
| 2013 | Archery | Chekrovolu Swuro |
| 2013 | Athletics | Ranjith Maheshwari (Athlete) |
| 2013 | Badminton | Pusarla Venkata Sindhu |
| 2013 | Billiards & Snooker | Rupesh Shah |
| 2013 | Boxing | Kavita Chahal |
| 2013 | Chess | Abhijeet Gupta |
| 2013 | Cricket | Virat Kohli |
| 2013 | Golf | Gaganjeet Bhullar |
| 2013 | Hockey | Saba Anjum |
| 2013 | Shooting | Rajkumari Rathore |
| 2013 | Squash | Joshna Chinappa |
| 2013 | Wrestling | Neha Rathi |
| 2013 | Wrestling | Dharmender Dalal |
| 2013 | Athletics | Amit Kumar Saroha |
The list of people who won the award in 1961 are –
| Year | Category | Awardee |
| 1961 | Athletics | Shri G.S. Randhawa |
| 1961 | Badminton | Shri Nandu M. Natekar |
| 1961 | Basketball | Shri Sarabjit Singh |
| 1961 | Boxing | Shri “Buddy” D’ Suza |
| 1961 | Chess | Shri Manuel Aaron |
| 1961 | Cricket | Shri Saleem Durrani |
| 1961 | Football | Shri P.K. Banerjee |
| 1961 | Golf | Capt. P.G. Sethi |
| 1961 | Gymnastics | Shri Shyam Lal |
| 1961 | Hockey (Men) | Shri Prithipal Singh |
| 1961 | Hockey (Women) | Kumari Ann Lumsden |
| 1961 | Polo | Shri Prem Singh |
| 1961 | Shooting | Shri Karni Singh |
| 1961 | Squash Rackets | Capt. K.S. Jain |
| 1961 | Swimming | Jam. Bajrangi Prasad |
| 1961 | Table Tennis | Shri J.C. Vora |
| 1961 | Tennis | Shri R. Krishnan |
| 1961 | Volleyball | Shri A. Palaniswamy |
| 1961 | Weightlifting | Shri A.N. Ghosh |
| 1961 | Wrestling | Havaldar Udey Chand |
Conclusion
From the past few years, the Arjuna Award has been expanded to the category of physically handicapped as well. Apart from being at the international level for a minimum of 4 years, it is required to have an essential amount of leadership to be nominated for this award.