2018 Khel Ratna winner Mirabai Chanu now nominated for Arjuna Award

TIL Desk Sports/ Mirabai Chanu, who won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2018, has been nominated for the Arjuna Award by the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) for 2020/21. Ragala Venkat Rahul and Punam Yadav are the other two nominations sent by the IWLF to the Sports Ministry.

25-year-old Mirabai had applied for both the Arjuna and the Khel Ratna in 2018. The Khel Ratna is the highest sporting honour in the country. She and Indian men’s cricket captain Virat Kohli had won the award in 2018.

She was also awarded the Padma Shri that year. The twin honour came after she won the 2017 weightlifting World Championships. “It is possible,” IWLF Secretary General Sahadev Yadav told when asked about nominating an athlete who has won a Khel Ratna for an Arjuna Award. “We felt she is one of the deserving candidates so we sent across her name.”