Sports and Awards

A note on results. Recent tournament winners and rankings change quickly. This note gives the structure, historical records and stable facts; check the latest results for the current year.

Major multi-sport events

Olympics and India

• India first participated in 1900 (Norman Pritchard won two silver medals in athletics — considered India's first Olympic medals); the first official team was in 1920. Field hockey: India won eight gold medals (1928–1956 six in a row, then 1964 and 1980).
• Individual Olympic medals:
  • K. D. Jadhav — bronze, wrestling (1952; the first individual medallist of independent India).
  • Leander Paes — bronze, tennis (1996).
  • Karnam Malleswari — bronze, weightlifting (2000; the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal).
  • Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore — silver, shooting (2004).
  • Abhinav Bindra — gold, 10 m air rifle (Beijing 2008) — India's first individual Olympic gold.
  • Sushil Kumar — bronze (2008) and silver (2012), wrestling; Vijender Singh — bronze, boxing (2008).
  • Saina Nehwal — bronze, badminton (2012); Mary Kom — bronze, boxing (2012); Gagan Narang — bronze (2012); Yogeshwar Dutt — bronze (2012).
  • P. V. Sindhu — silver (2016) and bronze (2020) — the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals; Sakshi Malik — bronze (2016, wrestling).
  • Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021): 7 medals — Neeraj Chopra (gold, javelin; the first Indian gold in athletics), Mirabai Chanu (silver, weightlifting), Ravi Dahiya (silver), Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), Bajrang Punia (bronze), P. V. Sindhu, and the men's hockey team (bronze).
  • Paris 2024: 6 medals (1 silver, 5 bronze) — Neeraj Chopra (silver, javelin), Manu Bhaker (bronze, 10 m air pistol; and Manu Bhaker–Sarabjot Singh bronze in the mixed team — the first Indian to win two medals in a single Games), Swapnil Kusale (bronze, 50 m rifle 3 positions), Aman Sehrawat (bronze, wrestling — the youngest Indian medallist) and the men's hockey team (bronze, beating Spain; the second straight bronze).
• Hockey: Dhyan Chand (the "Wizard of Hockey"; 3 Olympic golds 1928, 1932, 1936; birthday 29 August = National Sports Day), Balbir Singh Sr., Dhanraj Pillay, P. R. Sreejesh (retired after Paris 2024). The Hockey World Cup — India won in 1975 (the only time); Asian Games and Asia Cup titles; the Pro League. Hockey India; the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium (Delhi); Kalinga Stadium (Bhubaneswar) hosted the 2018 and 2023 World Cups.

Paralympics

India's best Paralympic Games were Paris 2024 (29 medals: 7 gold) — the highest ever, after Tokyo 2020 (19 medals; 5 gold). Notable: Murlikant Petkar (the first Paralympic gold, swimming, 1972); Devendra Jhajharia (javelin; golds in 2004 and 2016); Avani Lekhara (shooting; the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold, 2020, and again in 2024); Sumit Antil (javelin, gold); Deepa Malik (the first woman medallist, 2016, silver); Mariyappan Thangavelu (high jump, gold 2016).

Cricket

• Governing body: ICC (International Cricket Council; HQ Dubai; chairman — Jay Shah from December 2024); BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India; 1928; HQ Mumbai; the world's richest board).
• Formats: Test (5 days; the first was in 1877, Melbourne), ODI (50 overs; first in 1971, Melbourne), T20I (20 overs; first in 2005). Rules: 11 players, 22 yards (20.12 m) pitch; the ball weighs about 156–163 g; three stumps and two bails; LBW, DRS, Duckworth–Lewis–Stern (DLS) method; MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club; Lord's) frames the Laws.
• World Cups: ODI World Cup every 4 years (first in 1975 in England); India won in 1983 (captain Kapil Dev; at Lord's, beating the West Indies) and 2011 (captain M. S. Dhoni; at the Wankhede, beating Sri Lanka); Australia has won the most (six, with the 2023 title in India); England won in 2019 (a Super Over); 2023 final: Australia beat India at Ahmedabad. T20 World Cup: India won in 2007 (Dhoni) and 2024 (Rohit Sharma; beating South Africa in Barbados); the 2026 T20 World Cup was co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka (check the winner). ICC Champions Trophy: India won in 2013 and 2025 (the 2025 final in Dubai vs New Zealand). ICC World Test Championship: first in 2021 (New Zealand), 2023 (Australia), 2025 (South Africa). Women's World Cup: India won for the first time in 2025 (beating South Africa at Navi Mumbai) (check). Asia Cup, Border–Gavaskar Trophy (India–Australia Tests), Ashes (England–Australia), Anthony de Mello Trophy, Pataudi Trophy (India–England in England; renamed from the Anthony de Mello/Pataudi series in 2025), Freedom Trophy, Ranji Trophy (the premier domestic first-class tournament since 1934), Duleep Trophy, Irani Cup, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
• IPL (Indian Premier League): started in 2008 (the first champion: Rajasthan Royals, captain Shane Warne); Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have won five titles each (the CSK in 2023); Kolkata Knight Riders (2012, 2014, 2024); RCB won its first title in 2025. The IPL is run by the BCCI; Lalit Modi was its founder commissioner. WPL (Women's Premier League) started in 2023.
• Records and persons: Sachin Tendulkar — most Test runs (15,921), most ODI runs (18,426), 100 international centuries (51 Test and 49 ODI), the first double century in ODIs (2010); Virat Kohli — the most ODI centuries (51 and later more), Rohit Sharma — the highest ODI score (264, vs Sri Lanka, 2014) and 3 double centuries; Sunil Gavaskar — the first to 10,000 Test runs; Kapil Dev — 434 Test wickets (once the record); Anil Kumble — 10 wickets in an innings (1999, vs Pakistan, Delhi); Muttiah Muralitharan — most Test wickets (800); Shane Warne (708); Don Bradman — a Test average of 99.94; Brian Lara — 400* in a Test and 501* in first-class; Jim Laker (10 wickets in a Test innings); Kumble (the second to do so). Mahendra Singh Dhoni won all three ICC trophies (T20 2007, ODI 2011, Champions Trophy 2013). Test captains: India's first Test (1932, Lord's) captain C. K. Nayudu; India's first Test win in 1952 (Madras vs England).
• Stadiums: Narendra Modi Stadium (Motera), Ahmedabad — the largest cricket stadium (about 132,000 capacity); Eden Gardens (Kolkata) — the oldest large stadium, 1864; Wankhede (Mumbai); M. Chinnaswamy (Bengaluru); Feroz Shah Kotla / Arun Jaitley Stadium (Delhi); MA Chidambaram (Chepauk, Chennai); Lord's (London) — the "Home of Cricket"; MCG (Melbourne) — the largest stadium in Australia.
• Cricket terms: googly, yorker, bouncer, doosra, hat-trick, maiden over, duck, golden duck, century, follow-on, declaration, powerplay, free hit, Super Over, crease, pitch.

A note on winners. Awards are announced every year (Padma awards on the eve of Republic Day; Nobel Prizes in October). This note gives the rules, the first winners and the well-known historical winners. For the latest year's winners, check the official announcement.

Civilian honours of India

Bharat Ratna

• The highest civilian award of India, instituted in 1954 by President Rajendra Prasad; awarded for exceptional service in any field (art, literature, science, public service; sports were added in 2011). Not more than three are awarded in a year (the limit has been exceeded in a few years, e.g., 2024).
• It is not a title and cannot be used as a prefix or suffix to the recipient's name (Article 18(1) does not allow titles; Balaji Raghavan case, 1996 upheld the awards; the 1977 Janata government briefly stopped them and revived them in 1980).
• The first recipients (1954): C. Rajagopalachari, Dr S. Radhakrishnan and C. V. Raman.
• Posthumous: first given to Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966); Subhas Chandra Bose (1992) was announced and withdrawn after a court case; Maulana Azad (1992); Dr B. R. Ambedkar (1990); Sardar Patel (1991).
• First non-Indian citizens: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) and Nelson Mandela (1990). Mother Teresa (1980) was an Indian citizen by naturalisation.
• First woman: Indira Gandhi (1971). First sportsperson: Sachin Tendulkar (2014; the youngest recipient, aged 40). First musician: M. S. Subbulakshmi (1998). Lata Mangeshkar (2001), Ustad Bismillah Khan (2001), Bhimsen Joshi (2009), Pandit Ravi Shankar (1999), Satyajit Ray (1992; filmmaker).
• Recent recipients include Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Madan Mohan Malaviya (2015), Pranab Mukherjee, Nanaji Deshmukh and Bhupen Hazarika (2019), and Karpoori Thakur, L. K. Advani, P. V. Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh and M. S. Swaminathan (2024) (check the full list of recipients).
• Design: a peepal-leaf-shaped medallion of bronze (copper), with the Sun and the words "Bharat Ratna" in Devanagari; a white ribbon.

Padma awards

Announced every year on the eve of Republic Day by the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Padma Awards Committee (headed by the Cabinet Secretary) recommends; presented by the President in March–April.

• All were established in 1954 (the Padma Vibhushan was initially called Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg, Tisra Varg). Fields: art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service. About 100–150 awards are given every year. Government servants (except doctors and scientists) are not eligible.
• Padma Vibhushan first winners (1954): Satyendra Nath Bose, Nandalal Bose, Zakir Husain, Balasaheb Gangadhar Kher, V. K. Krishna Menon, etc.
• Bharat Ratna, Padma awards are not for any monetary benefit.

Other national honours

• Gallantry awards (see below); Ashok Chakra; Jeevan Raksha Padak (saving lives); Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak; Kirti Chakra; President's Police Medal; Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award; Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar; Nari Shakti Puraskar (for women; 8 March); Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar) for children (26 December, Veer Bal Diwas); National Bravery Award (since 1957, children); Vir Chakra.

Gallantry awards

• Instituted on 26 January 1950 (the peacetime ones as the Ashoka Chakra series in 1952, renamed in 1967). The PVC (a bronze medal with Indra's vajra depicted four times) was designed by Savitri Khanolkar (Eve Yvonne Maday de Maros), a Swiss-born wife of an Indian officer.
• First PVC: Major Somnath Sharma (4 Kumaon Regiment; posthumous; the 1947 Kashmir war). PVC winners (selected): Karam Singh, Joginder Singh, Abdul Hamid (1965), Albert Ekka, Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon (the only Air Force PVC), Arun Khetarpal (1971), Vikram Batra, Manoj Kumar Pandey, Yogendra Singh Yadav and Sanjay Kumar (Kargil 1999), and Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria (UN Congo). Only 21 PVCs have been awarded.
• The Ashoka Chakra first awarded in 1952; Naik Neerja Bhanot (the youngest, aged 23, posthumous; Pan Am flight 73 hijack, 1986) is a well-known recipient.