Padmashri for Olympic winners Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh

The Padmashri award is an award given by the Indian Government, generally to an Indian citizen to recognize his(her) distinguished contribution to the field of Arts, Industry, Education, Literature, Science, Social service, Public service or sports. This civilian award was first given in the year 1954.

This year, Olympic winners Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh have been left out from the list of Padmashri award recipients. People all over the world watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics. When Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh won bronze medals in Men’s 66kg Freestyle wrestling and middleweight boxing events respectively, gaining global visibility for India in the world of sports, every Indian cheered and felt a surge of national pride.

The last bronze medal won by an Indian wrestler was in the year 1952 at the Helsinki Olympics. Sushil Kumar became the second Indian wrestler to bring home a bronze medal after over five decades. Besides the Beijing Olympics, he has also won gold medals at the Commonwealth wrestling championship in the years 2003, 2005 and 2007. He has got home bronze medals at the Asian wrestling championships in the year 2003 and 2008.

Kumar hails from the village of Baprola in New Delhi. He started training at the age of 14. Despite of his humble roots, lack of funds and proper training facilities, he endeavored and made India proud at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is currently employed by the Indian Railways.

Vijender is the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal. Besides this, he has won has won a bronze medal in the 2006 Asian games and a silver medal at the 2006 commonwealth games.

Singh hails from the village of Kaluwas in Haryana. His father is a bus driver, mother is a homemaker and younger brother works in the army. He too has worked with minimum funds and has made India proud with his recent Olympics win. He currently works for the Haryana Police.