Karnam Malleswari is a retired Indian weightlifter. She is the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics in 2000. In 1994, she received the Arjuna Award and in 1999, she received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour, and the civilian Padma Shri award.
Pullela Gopichand is an Indian former badminton player. Currently, he is the Chief National Coach for the India national badminton team. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, becoming the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone. He runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Khel Ratna Award in 2001, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan – India's third highest civilian award – in 2014. He is the only Indian coach to win the "Honorable Mention" by the International Olympic Committee at the 2019 Coaches Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Kalayathumkuzhi Mathews Beenamol, popularly known as K. M. Beenamol, from Kombidinjal, Idukki district, Kerala is an international athlete from India.
The Khel Ratna Award, officially known as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award or formerly known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, is the highest sporting honour of India. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.
The Dronacharya Award, officially known as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is sports coaching honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Drona, often referred as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata of ancient India. He was master of advanced military warfare and was appointed as the royal preceptor to the Kaurava and the Pandava princes for their training in military arts and astras. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and are honoured to have done "outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and enabled sportspersons to excel in international events" over a period of four years. Two awards are designated for the lifetime contribution in coaching where the achievements in producing "outstanding sportspersons" over a period of 20 years or more are considered. As of 2020, the award comprises a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a certificate, ceremonial dress, and a cash prize of ₹15 lakh (US$17,000).
Jyotirmoyee Sikdar is an Indian politician and former sportswoman. She served as member of parliament of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from the Krishnagar constituency in the 14th Lok Sabha. She was defeated in the 2009 Indian general election by the actor turned politician Tapas Paul of the Trinamool Congress. She had been reportedly inactive in politics following her defeat. In 2019, she herself pledged support to the All India Trinamool Congress and then joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the following year.
Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha is an Indian sports administrator and retired track and field athlete. Usha was born in Koothali near Perambra in Kozhikode district, Kerala. She grew up in Payyoli. Usha has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. She has won 4 gold medals and 7 silver medals in the Asian Games. She is often associated as the "Queen of Indian track and field".
Akhil Kumar is an Indian boxer who has won several international and national boxing awards. He practices an "open guarded" boxing style. In 2005, the Indian government gave him the Arjuna Award for his achievements in international boxing. In March 2017, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, appointed Akhil Kumar along with Mary Kom as national observers for boxing.
Shiny Kurisingal Wilson is a retired Indian athlete. She has been a National Champion in 800 metres for 14 years. Shiny Abraham Wilson represented India more than 75 times in international competition. She holds the added distinction of representing Asia in four World Cups. She is also perhaps the only athlete to have taken part in six Asian Track & Field Meets in a row beginning 1985 in Jakarta. During this period she won seven gold, five silver and two bronze medals in the Asian competitions. She collected a total of 18 gold and two silver medals from the seven South Asian Federation (SAF) Meets she has competed.
Krishna Poonia is an international gold-medalist Indian discus thrower, track-and-field athlete, 2 times Olympics participant, Padma Shri and Arjuna Award recipient, politician from the Congress party and the former MLA from Sadulpur constituency in Rajasthan. She participated in 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. In 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, she won a gold medal. She was appointed the President Of the Rajasthan State Sports Council in February 2022.
Manathoor Devasia Valsamma is a retired Indian athlete. She was the second Indian woman to win an individual gold medal at the Asian Games and the first to win it on Indian soil.
Bobby Aloysius is an Indian athlete from Kerala, who competes in the high jump event. Currently, she is residing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. She held the Indian and South Asian records in high jump between 1995 and 2012 of 1.91m. Bobby participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics, won silver in 2002 Busan Asian Games and won gold in the Jakarta Asian Championships.
Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom is an Indian Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer to win eight World Championship medals. Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she was the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she competed in the flyweight (51 kg) category and won a bronze medal. She had also been ranked as the world's No. 1 female light-flyweight by the International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA). She became the first Indian female boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian female boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is also the only boxer to become Asian Amateur Boxing Champion for a record six times. Mary Kom won the 51kg gold in President's Cup in Indonesia.
In India, the Athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946.
Deepa Malik is an Indian para athlete from Haryana. She is the first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games. She won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in shot put.
Mariyappan Thangavelu is an Indian Paralympic high jumper. He is a triple Paralympics medalist having won the gold medal at 2016 Rio, the silver medal at 2020 Tokyo and the bronze medal at 2024 Paris. He has also been a double medalist at the World Championships with one gold and one bronze. Additionally, he is an Asian Para Games silver medalist.
Nayana James is an Indian athlete competing in the long jump event.
Robert Bobby George is an athletics coach from Kerala, India. In 2004, he received Dronacharya Award, India's highest award for sports coaching.
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