The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award has been renamed to the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award on Friday, August 5 by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi stated that he was receiving requests from many to have the name of this award changed to pay a tribute to the great Indian hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand and he had announced this change of name, subsequently. Here are five facts about the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award:Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award To Be Renamed As Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award: PM Narendra Modi

1) The award was first introduced in the year 1991-1992 and was rewarded to the best sportsperson of the year. The award comprises of cash prize worth Rs 25 lakh, a medal and a certificate.

2) The first recipient of this award was Indian grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand for his performances in the year 1991-1992.

3) Shooter Abhinav Bindra was the youngest winner of the award at 18 years of age, in the year 2001. Seven years later, he would go on to become India's first individual gold medallist at the Beijing Olympics!

4) Rohit Sharma (Cricket), Mariyappan Thangavelu (Para-Athletics), Manika Batra (Table Tennis), Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling) and Rani Rampal (Hockey) are the most recent winners of this award. All of them won this award in 2020.

5) Till date, Pankaj Advani is the only sportsperson to have won this award for two sports-snooker and billiards.

With the Indian athletes shining bright at the Tokyo Olympics, it would be interesting to see who wins the next Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 06, 2021 02:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).