Rio Olympics silver medallist shuttler P V Sindhu and bronze winner grappler Sakshi Malik along with gymnast Dipa Karmakar and badminton coach Pullela Gopichand were presented BMW cars.
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar and discus thrower Vikas Gowda were the other sport spersons to receive the honour on Thursday.
After becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, Dipa Karmakar has set her eyes on a podium finish at the Rio Games scheduled to be held in August.
Among the cricketers, Australia's David Warner, Steve Smith and West Indies' Chris Gayle also wished the fans on Instagram.
'We need more support from states to back budding talents from not-so-affluent families.'
Indian athletes have so far (Monday) not being able to win a single medal at Rio Olympics. But there are two performances- Dipa Karmaka's historic 4th place finish in Artistic Gymnastics and Lalita Babar finishing at a respectable 10th spot in 3000m Steeplechase- because these performances have come in events in which India had no significant performances in the past. Former cricketer Virender Sehwag, who has been active on social media, made a special request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Independence Day to honour these two athletes.
Dipa, who had an injury-marred campaign at the Asian Games, scored 14.100 to finish at the 6th place out of 16 gymnasts in the qualification.
Excitement and expectations has reached a feverish pitch in Tripura as the people from the small north-eastern state will watch their favourite daughter Dipa Karmakar vault into history during the finals at the Rio Olympics, on Sunday night.
Olympics-bound gymnast Dipa Karmakar's coach, Bisweshwar Nandi said that the Indian gymnast's best is yet to come and her hunger for perfection would take her to places.
The 24-year-old from Tripura, who had finished fourth in vault event in the 2016 Rio Olympics, scored 14.150 to win gold. She had topped the qualification also with a score of 13.400.
Ecstatic and exhausted in equal measure after becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, Dipa Karmakar, on Thursday, said she would look to continue scripting history wherever she competes.
Sania Mirza, the tennis icon, made a dazzling entry at the fifth Indian Sports Honours event, donning a stunning floral blazer suit.
'Our performance went really well though I am sad I couldn't manage a medal but I am happy to secure 15+ in the first level'
Fresh from her historic feat at the Rio Olympics, gymnast Dipa Karmakar touched down in the country to a rousing welcome, in New Delhi, on Saturday.
It is time we support Dipa Karmakar and not forget her by the time Tokyo Olympics roll in, the way we've forgotten so many others -- medal winners who have died in penury, who have had to sell their medals to survive, who have taken auto-rickshaws home from the airport. It is time that talent, and not money, decided who gets to be nominated into the International Olympic Committee.
She had an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery in Mumbai and had to skip the Asian Championships at Thailand in May last year.
Gymnastics officials said that Dipa's feat was the first time an Indian woman clinched a gold in a global gymnastic competition.
Dulal Karmakar is a proud man today even if her daughter Dipa missed a historic Olympic medal in gymnastics by a whisker in Rio Games, saying the 'Produnova' girl will come better and stronger in 2020 Tokyo Oylmpics. "I am feeling very proud of her accomplishment. I am not at all sad. This was her first Olympics. Next time, when the Olympics will be held in Japan, she will perform much better and bring a medal (for the country)," a seemingly proud Dulal said. Dipa missed a bronze medal by a whisker to finish fourth in the women's vault finals in the Rio Games but still created history by producing the best-ever performance by an Indian gymnast in the Olympics history.
Dipa Karmakar will look to secure an Olympic berth with 'some good performances' at back-to-back Artistic Gymnastics World Cups
Pranati Nayak is only the third Indian woman to win a medal at the GymWorld Cup after Aruna Budda Reddy (2018) and Dipa (2018).
When Dipa Karmakar launches into her soaring vault at the world championships, chances are that none of her rivals will be aware that the foundations of the skill were built on makeshift apparatus made by stacking several crash mats on top of each other.
A woman who faced life threats and sexual abuses online for her tweets ahead of gymnast Dipa Karmakar's performance in Rio Olympics sought the help of Union Minister Sushma Swaraj following which a case was lodged by Rajasthan Police.
A sobbing Dipa blamed it on a jerk felt during the 'podium practice' and insisted she will strive to make up for the lost opportunity by shining in the balancing beam finals.
Pranati Nayak secured a bronze medal in the Vault Final at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.
Gymnast Dipa Karmakar would be aiming to put behind the injury-marred disaster that was the Asian Games when she aims for a positive start to her Olympic qualification bid with the World Cup of Artistic Gymnastics.
'She already knows two vaults and now I am teaching her a third one. She can perform any two but which two, that we have not decided. The basic training (for Handspring 540) has begun and after two months she will start performing'
Dipa Karmakar missed a bronze medal by a whisker, finishing fourth in the women's vault final at the Rio Games on Sunday. Nonetheless, the Tripura gymnast made history, coming up with the best-ever performance by an Indian gymnast at the quadrennial Games.
Images of the Padma Shri conferred on sports stars on Thursday
It was a celebration of woman power in sports as Olympic stars PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar were on Monday conferred India's highest sporting honour -- the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna -- along with shooter Jitu Rai in a gleaming awards ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.
With uncertainty hovering over India's participation in next month's Artistic Gymnastic World Championship, top gymnasts Rakesh Patra and Dipa Karmakar feel not taking part in the competition will affect their preparations for the Tokyo Olympics.
The Cottbus meet is part of an eight-event qualifying system for the 2020 Games, under which a gymnast will make the cut based on their best three scores.
India's top sporting stars including cricketer Rohit Sharma, wrestler Bajrang Punia along with Olympians Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar are supporting #PlayforIndia initiative, which aims to help distressed people associated with sports whose livelihoods have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
No one knows whether Dipa Karmakar believed in the old adage "Smile when it hurts most" but her resplendent smile after missing out on what would have been a path-breaking medal in Indian sport belied the storm brewing up in her mind. Back in the Games Village, it was difficult to control emotions as she wept inconsolably. Her coach and father figure Bishweshwar Nandi was also crestfallen. "After she returned to the Games Village, Dipa was inconsolable. Missing the bronze by so less a margin will remain the biggest regret for us," coach Nandi told PTI.
'Being a cricketer, I will say that the game needs to be globalised, without any doubt'
Indian gymnast Dipa Karmarkar, on Saturday, claimed a bronze medal at the vault event on the third day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, Germany.
India's gymnastics queen, Dipa Karmakar's coach Bishweshwar Nandi expects a more solid sports policy and bigger effort from SAI and the government
Star gymnast Dipa Karmakar's coach Bisweshwar Nandi has dismissed the notion that it would have been better had the medalists and other top performers at the Rio Games been given financial before their sojourn to Brazil.
Ace Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar said she will once again switch to the 'vault of death' after the Asian Games.
Dipa Karmakar's coach Bishweshwar Nandi never used corporal punishment over his ward during a career spanning more than 15 years, but he used to attack the the star gymnast "psychologically" to stir up her emotions, that resulted in a historic fourth place finish in Rio. Revealing the secret of his training, the Dronacharya awardee coach said, "In this era of scientific training, corporal punishment is a strict 'no-no'." "I've to attack her psychologically. At times she would break down and was so hurt that she would plead, 'don't tell me like this, it's more painful than getting caned', but that's my technique.
India's schedule on Day 9 of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, on Sunday.
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