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President Ram Nath Kovind conferred two Padma Vibhushan, eight Padma Bhushan, and 54 Padma Shri Awards for the year 2022 on Monday. The Civil Investiture Ceremony-I was held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. A total of 119 Padma Awards were presented by President Kovind this year. The list comprises of seven Padma Vibhushan awardees, 16 Padma Bhuhsan, and 102 Padma Shri Awards. Out of the 119, a total of 29 winners are women, 16 are posthumous awardees and one is a transgender awardee.

‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service, 'Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order while ‘Padma Shri’ is awarded for distinguished service in any field. The Padma Bhushan award in sports was given to Devendra Jhajharia. Notably, Jhajharia is the first Indian Paralympics player to win two gold medals at the Paralympics.

A total of nine sportspersons including the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra have been conferred the Padma Awards. Chopra won the historic gold medal in the Javelin throw event in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Notably, this was India’s first gold medal in track and field events in over 100 years. Earlier, Neeraj was also conferred with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award.

Indian Paralympic shooter Avani Lekhara was conferred with the Padma Shri award. Lekhara won a gold medal in 10m air rifle standing and a bronze medal in 50m rifle 3 positions at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Meanwhile, Sumit Antil, Pramod Bhagat, Sankaranarayan Menon Chundayil, Vandana Kataria, Brahmanand Sankhwalkar, and Faisal Ali Dhar have received the special honour in the Padma Shri category.

Padma Bhushan 2022 winner in sports:

  • Devendra Jhajharia

Padma Shri 2022 winners in sports:

  • Neeraj Chopra
  • Sumit Antil
  • Pramod Bhagat
  • Avani Lekhara
  • Faisal Ali Dar
  • Sankarnarayana Menon Chundayil
  • Brahmanand Sankhwalkar
  • Vandana Katariya