Padma Awards 2022: Neeraj Chopra to Avani Lekhara - Sporting heroes conferred with top civilian honours

The Padma Awards are considered among the prestigious honours to be presented to Indian civilians. The Government of India announced the list of awardees for the year 2022. Among the winners, nine happen to be sportspersons, as we take a look at each from the sporting field to win the honours.

Devendra Jhajharia (Padma Bhushan)
He happens to be a Paralympic javelin thrower from Churu. He has won three Paralympic Games medals, including a couple of golds. He has won six international medals to date, including three golds, one of them coming at the IPC World Championships.

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Sumit Antil (Padma Shri)
He is another Para-javelin thrower for India. He happens to be a gold medalist, while he was notable for breaking his world record on three occasions during the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. His gold medal came during the Tokyo event itself, which happens to be the 23-year-old's only international medal to date.

Pramod Bhagat (Padma Shri)
He happens to be a paralympic badminton player and a gold medalist. A 33-year-old veteran, the world number one has won numerous accolades across the globe, including nine gold medals of his 15 medals. One of his gold medals came during the Tokyo Paralympics.

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Neeraj Chopra (Padma Shri)
A javelin thrower and an Olympian, he happens to be India's second-ever Olympic gold-medalist and the first in the track and field event. He won the same during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He has won seven international medals to date, while six happen to be gold.

Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil (Padma Shri)
He is a veteran teacher of Kalarippayattu (a sword combat art from South India). He hails from Thrissur and has presented his excellent skills for over six decades.

Faisal Ali Dar (Padma Shri)
He happens to be a Kashmiri Martial Arts from Bandipore. He has inspired a lot of young athletes in the war-hit zone of India to be self-dependent in terms of combat. He has also helped in developing global medal winners for the country.

Vandana Kataria (Padma Shri)
Kataria is an Indian hockey player who has become one of the prominent players in the country. She happened to be the highest goal-scorer for India during the Tokyo Olympics, as the side finished fourth during the event. She is also the first Indian woman to score an Olympic hat-trick. She has won four medals to date, including a gold at the Asia Cup.

Avani Lekhara (Padma Shri)
She happens to be a para-shooter who made names during the Tokyo Paralympics. She is the first para-athlete to win gold during the event in shooting and the first to win multiple medals at an event. The two medals in Tokyo have been her only two medals to date.

Brahmanand Sankhwalkar (Padma Shri)
He is a veteran Indian footballer who led the side, while he is also a successful coach. He won numerous accolades at the club level, while his contributions as the coach in Indian football have been commendable.