Information about Dronacharya Award: (1985-2023):
The Dronacharya Award is a sports coaching award given annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. This honor is given every year to eminent coaches who have successfully coached players or teams, due to which they have achieved outstanding success in international competitions.
Brief information about Dronacharya Awards:
| Category of award | Game |
| Establishment year | 1985 |
| Prize money | 15 lakh (US$ 21900) |
| Overall winner | 153 (as of 2023) |
| First winner | Bhalachandra Bhaskar Bhagwat, Om Prakash Bhardwaj, O. M. Nambiar (1985) |
| Last Winner (2023) | Ganesh Prabhakaran, Mahavir Saini, Lalit Kumar, RB Ramesh, Shivendra Singh, Jaskirat Singh Grewal, Bhaskaran E and Jayant Kumar Pushilal |
History of Dronacharya Award:
Dronacharya Award was instituted in the year 1985. The award is named after Guru Drona, often referred to as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata of ancient India. He was a master of advanced military warfare and the Kaurava and Pandava princes were ordained as royal statesmen for their training in the military arts and estrus (divine weapons).
The first recipients of the award were Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat (wrestling), Om Prakash Bharadwaj (boxing), and O. M. Nambiar (athletics), who were awarded in 1985. Usually a maximum of 5 trainers are conferred with this award every year.
Amount to be received in Dronacharya Award:
The prize money given by the Government of India earlier in the country's highest sports awards including Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award was Rs 5 lakh. But in 2017 by the Government of India, this amount has been increased from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh 50 thousand. Under the Dronacharya award, now Rs 07 lakh 50 thousand in cash, a bronze statue, certificate and ceremonial dress are provided.
Dronacharya Award 2023 Winners:
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2023 of India on 20 December 2023 in which the winner of the Dronacharya Award was also announced. After this, the President of India distributed the awards on 09 January 2024.
In the year 2024, President Draupadi Murmu honored Ganesh Prabhakaran, Mahavir Saini, Lalit Kumar, RB Ramesh, Shivendra Singh, Jaskirat Singh Grewal, Bhaskaran E and Jayant Kumar Pushilal during the National Sports Awards 2023 for their unprecedented contribution in grooming players in their sports. Awarded Dronacharya Award.
List of Dronacharya Awardees from 1985 to 2023:
| The year | Names of respected trainers | Related Games |
| 1985 | Bhalachandra Bhaskar Bhagwat | Wrestling |
| 1985 | Om Prakash Bhardwaj | Boxer |
| 1985 | O. M. Nambiar | Athletics |
| 1986 | Desh Prem Azad | Cricket |
| 1986 | Raghunandan Vasant Gokhale | Chase |
| 1987 | Guru Hanuman | Wrestling |
| 1987 | Gurcharan Singh | Cricket |
| 1988 | No award | |
| 1989 | ||
| 1990 | Ramakant Achrekar | Cricket |
| 1990 | Syed Naimuddin | Football |
| 1990 | A. Ramana Rao | Volleyball |
| 1991 | No award | |
| 1992 | ||
| 1993 | ||
| 1994 | Ilyas Babar | Athlete |
| 1995 | Shyam Sundar Rao | Volleyball |
| 1995 | Karan Singh | Athlete |
| 1996 | Wilson Jones | Billiard and Snooker |
| 1996 | Pal Singh Sandhu | Weight Lifting |
| 1997 | Joginder Singh Saini | Athlete |
| 1998 | G.S.Sandhu | Boxing |
| 1998 | Hargobind Singh Sandhu | Athlete |
| 1998 | Bahadur Singh Chauhan | Athlete |
| 1999 | Kenneth Owen Bosen | Athlete |
| 1999 | Hawa Singh | Boxing |
| 1999 | Ajay Kumar Sirohi | Weightlifting |
| 2000 | SM Arif | Badminton |
| 2000 | Gudal Singh Bhangu | Hockey |
| 2000 | Bhupendra Dhawan | Powerlifting |
| 2000 | Gopal Purushottam Phadke | Kho Kho |
| 2000 | Hansa Sharma | Weightlifting |
| 2001 | Michael Ferreira | Billiard and Snooker |
| 2001 | Sunny Thomas | Shooter |
| 2002 | Maharaj Krishna Kaushik | Hockey |
| 2002 | Renu Kohli | Athlete |
| 2002 | Homi Motiwala | Yachting |
| 2002 | AD Prasad Rao | Kabaddi |
| 2002 | Jaswant Singh | Athlete |
| 2003 | Sukhchain Cheema | Wrestling |
| 2003 | Robert Bobby George | Athlete |
| 2003 | Anool kumar | Boxing |
| 2003 | Rajinder Singh Junior | Hockey |
| 2004 | Serous Wipe | Scotch |
| 2004 | Arvind Savur | Billiard and Snooker |
| 2004 | Sunita Sharma | Cricket |
| 2005 | Ismail Bag | Rowing |
| 2005 | Maha Singh Rao | Wrestling |
| 2005 | Balwan Singh | Kabaddi |
| 2005 | M. Venu | Boxer |
| 2006 | Koneru Ashok | Chase |
| 2006 | Damodaran Chandralal | Boxing |
| 2006 | R. D. Singh | Athletics |
| 2007 | Jagdish Singh | Boxing |
| 2007 | Jagminder Singh | Wrestling |
| 2007 | Sanjeev Kumar Singh | Archery |
| 2007 | G. E. Sreedharan | Volleyball |
| 2008 | No award | |
| 2009 | Jaydev Bisht | Boxing |
| 2009 | Pullela Gopichand | Badminton |
| 2009 | S. Baldev Singh | Hockey |
| 2009 | Satpal Singh | Wrestling |
| 2010 | Subhash Agarwal | Billiards and Snooker |
| 2010 | Ajay Kumar Bansal | Hockey |
| 2010 | Captain Chandroop | Wrestling |
| 2010 | AK Kutty | Athletics |
| 2010 | l. Ibomcha Singh | Boxing |
| 2011 | Devender Kumar Rathod | Gymnastics |
| 2011 | Kuntal Kumar Roy | Athletics |
| 2011 | Ramphal | Wrestling |
| 2011 | Inukrathu Venkateswara Roy | Boxing |
| 2011 | Rajinder Singh | Junior Hockey |
| 2012 | Jaswinder Singh Bhatia | Athletics |
| 2012 | Sunil Dabas | Kabaddi |
| 2012 | BI Fernandez | Boxing |
| 2012 | Bhavani Mukherjee Table | Tennis |
| 2012 | Virender Poonia | Athletics |
| 2012 | Satyapal Singh | Athletics Block-Icon |
| 2012 | Harendra Singh | Hockey |
| 2012 | Yashveer Singh | Wrestling |
| 2013 | Poornima Mahto | Archery |
| 2013 | Narendra Singh Saini | Hockey |
| 2013 | Mahavir Singh | Boxing |
| 2013 | Raj Singh | Wrestling |
| 2013 | KP Thomas | Athletics |
| 2014 | Gurcharan Gogi | Judo |
| 2014 | Jose Jacob | Rowing |
| 2014 | N. Lingappa | Athletics |
| 2014 | Ganpati Manoharan | Boxing |
| 2014 | Mahabir Prasad | Wrestling |
| 2015 | Nihar Amin | Swimming |
| 2015 | Anoop Singh | Wrestling |
| 2015 | Harbans Singh | Athletics |
| 2015 | Naval Singh | Athletics Block Icon |
| 2015 | Swatantra Raj Singh | Boxing |
| 2016 | Sagar Mal Dyal | Boxing |
| 2016 | S. Pradeep Kumar | Swimming |
| 2016 | Bishweshwar Nandi | Gymnastics |
| 2016 | Mahavir Singh Phogat | Wrestling |
| 2016 | Nagpuri Ramesh | Athletics |
| 2016 | Rajkumar Sharma | Cricket |
| 2017 | R. Gandhi | Athletics |
| 2017 | Heera Nand Kataria | Kabaddi |
| 2017 | G.S.S.V. Prasad | Badminton |
| 2017 | Brij Bhushan | Boxing |
| 2017 | P.A. Raphael | Hockey |
| 2017 | Sanjoy chakraborty | Shooting |
| 2017 | Roshan Lal | Wrestling |
| 2018 | Subedar Chenanda Achaiya Kuttappa | Boxing |
| 2018 | Vijay Sharma | Weightlifting |
| 2018 | A. Srinivasa Rao | Table Tennis |
| 2018 | Sukhdev Singh Pannu | Athletics |
| 2018 | Clarence Lobo | Hockey (Life Time) |
| 2018 | Tarak Sinha | Cricket (Lifetime) |
| 2018 | Jeevan Kumar Sharma | Judo (Lifetime) |
| 2018 | VR Bidu | Athletics (Lifetime) |
| 2019 | Marjban Patel | Hockey (Life Time) |
| 2019 | Ramveer Singh Khokhar | Kabaddi (Life Time) |
| 2019 | Sanjay Bhardwaj | Cricket (Lifetime) |
| 2019 | Vimal kumar | Badminton |
| 2019 | Sandeep Gupta | Table Tennis |
| 2019 | Mohinder Singh Dhillon | Athletics |
| 2020 | Dharmendra Tiwari | Archery (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Purushottam Rai | Athletics (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Shiv Singh | Boxing (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Romesh Pathania | Hockey (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Krishna Kumar Hooda | Kabaddi (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Vijay Bhalchandra Munishwar | Para Powerlifting (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Naresh Kumar | Tennis (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Om Prakash Dahiya | Wrestling (Lifetime) |
| 2020 | Jude Felix Sebastian | Hockey |
| 2020 | Yogesh Malviya | Mallakhamb |
| 2020 | Jaspal rana | Shooting |
| 2020 | Kuldeep kumar handu | wushu |
| 2020 | Gaurav khanna | Badminton |
| 2021 | TP Ouseph | Athletics |
| 2021 | Sarkar Talwar | Cricket |
| 2021 | Sarpal Singh | Hockey |
| 2021 | Ashan Kumar | Kabaddi |
| 2021 | Tapan Kumar Panigrahi | Swimming |
| 2022 | Raj Singh | Wrestling |
| 2022 | Jeevanjot Singh Teja | Archery |
| 2022 | Muhammad Ali Qamar | Boxing |
| 2022 | Suma Siddharth Shirur | Para shooting |
| 2022 | Sujit Mann | Wrestling |
| 2022 | Dinesh Jawahar Lad | Cricket |
| 2022 | Bimal Prafulla Ghosh | Football |
| 2023 | Ganesh Prabhakaran | Malkhamb |
| 2023 | Mahavir Saini | Para Athletics |
| 2023 | Lalit Kumar | Wrestling |
| 2023 | RB Ramesh | Chess |
| 2023 | Shivendra Singh | Hockey |
| 2023 | Jaskirat Singh Grewal | Golf (Lifetime) |
| 2023 | Bhaskaran E | Kabaddi (Lifetime) |
| 2023 | Jayant Kumar Pushilal | Table Tennis (Lifetime) |
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Dronacharya Award FAQs:
The Dronacharya Award is given to coaches who have trained outstanding sportspersons in the field of sports such as Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championship and World Cup and Cricket, Indigenous Games.
Wilson Jones was awarded the Dronacharya Award in the year 1996. Wilson Jones was a professional billiards player from India. Wilson Jones did the feat of making India the world champion for the first time in the 11th year of independence. A two-time world champion, Jones was a 12-time national champion in billiards and five times in snooker.
In the year 1985, Om Prakash Bhardwaj won the Dronacharya Award in the sport of boxing. Om Prakash Bhardwaj was a boxing coach from Chennai, India. In 1985, he was awarded the Dronacharya Award, India's highest award in the field of sports and athletics coaching. He is India's first Dronacharya Award winning coach for boxing.
In the year 1985, Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat was awarded the Dronacharya Award in Wrestling. The first recipients of this award were Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat (wrestling), Om Prakash Bharadwaj (boxing), and OM Nambiar (athletics).
Usually 5 coaches are honored with the Dronacharya Award every year. Some exceptions have been made (2012,2016,2017,2019) when more recipients were awarded in a year.