For The First Time In History, Sports Ministry Recommends Only Women For The Padma Awards And That's Something Special

For the first time in the history of Indian sports, a female athlete, Mary Kom, has been recommended for Padma Vibhushan, the country＊s second highest civilian honour.

But what trumps even that is the fact that all nine athletes recommended by the Sports Ministry for the Padma awards are women.

P V Sindhu, has received the nomination for the Padma Bhushan, the country＊s third highest civilian award. She was expected to get it, but missed out.

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The Padma Vibhushan has been given to three male sportspersons in the past 每 chess wizard Viswanathan Anand (2007), cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar (2008) and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary (2008), who got the award posthumously.

Besides Mary Kom and Sindhu, the other seven women in this year's list 每 all recommended for Padma Shri 每 are wrestler Vinesh Phogat, table tennis star Manika Batra, T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, hockey captain Rani Rampal, former shooter Suma Shirur and mountaineer twin sisters, Tashi and Nungshi Malik.

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The recommendations have been sent to the Padma awards committee in the ministry of home affairs (MHA). It will announce the names of the selected awardees on the eve of the Republic Day celebrations 每 January 25, 2020.

Mary Kom, 36, who was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha in April, 2016 on the recommendation of the ruling BJP government, is looking to qualify for her second Olympics 每 the 2020 Tokyo Games 每 after securing a historic bronze at the 2012 London Olympics. Late last year, the Manipuri boxer had clinched the world title in 48kg category at home for the record sixth time.

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Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu recently became the first Indian to win a World Championship title, defeating Japan＊s Nozomi Okuhara 21-7 21-7 in Basel, Switzerland.