Sportstar ACES Awards 2025: List of nominees for Sportstar of the Year (Female) Award

Sportstar ACES Awards 2025: List of nominees for Sportstar of the Year (Female) Award

2024 was a landmark year for Indian sports, marked by historic achievements. D. Gukesh became the youngest-ever World Chess Champion, while India’s men’s and women’s chess teams clinched gold at the Olympiad in Budapest. The men’s cricket team ended its ICC trophy drought with a T20 World Cup win. Indian athletes shone at the Paris Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Let’s celebrate these and other milestones at the seventh Sportstar ACES Awards.

Age: 26

Discipline: Shooting

Manu Bhaker scripted history at the Olympics when she became the first Indian after Independence to win multiple medals in a single edition of the Games.

Bhaker first won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol and secured another with Sarabjot Singh in a 10m air pistol mixed team event, also becoming the first woman from the country to win a shooting medal in an Olympic Games.

The 22-year-old scored 221.7 to finish third in the eight-woman final of the 10m air pistol, winning the first medal for India at the Paris Games. It was India’s fifth Olympic medal in shooting and the first since the London Games in 2012.

At the previous edition of the quadrennial Games, Bhaker’s weapon suffered a malfunction, leading to her missing the finals of both the 10m and 25m air pistol events.

At the French capital this time, she seized the moment with two finishes on the podium. Before that, she bagged bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol at the ISSF World Cup 2024 Stage II in Granada

Won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol in the Paris Olympics

Won bronze in the 10m air pistol mixed team event in Paris

Won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol at the ISSF World Cup 2024 Stage II

Age: 28

Discipline: Cricket

Smriti Mandhana, a left-handed opening batter, is a cornerstone of the Indian women’s cricket team. Under Smriti’s leadership, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru won its maiden Women’s Premier League title earlier this year. She amassed 300 runs in 10 innings, including a crucial 39-ball 31 in the final to help her side post a comfortable win against the Delhi Capitals. In the Women’s Asia Cup in July this year, she scored 157 runs across four matches at an average of 57.66 and a strike rate of 137.30, finishing as the third-highest run-scorer of the tournament.

Equalled the record for most ODI hundreds by an Indian during the series vs South Africa-W

Broke the record for most runs by an Indian woman in a bilateral ODI series

Led RCB to its maiden WPL title

Fourth highest run-scorer in WPL 2024

Age: 22

Discipline: Shooting (SH1)

The SH1 category is for athletes with movement restrictions in their arms, legs, or lower trunk, or who are without limbs.

Avani Lekhara created history at the Paris Paralympics 2024. Successfully defending her women’s 10m air rifle shooting standing SH1 title at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, she became the first Indian woman to win two gold medals in the Games’ history.

Avani created a new Paralympic record with a score of 249.7 in the 2024 final. She also shattered her previous record of 249.6, which she set three years ago on her Games debut at Tokyo 2020, where she also won a bronze in the Women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1.

The 22-year-old has won seven Gold Medals in National Shooting Championships between 2016-20 and has won multiple medals at World Cups.

Lekhara is the recipient of the Maj. Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award – the highest sporting award in India – and was also conferred the Padma Shri in 2022.

World No. 1 in men’s singles SL3 category as of September 24, 2024

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (gold)

4 Nations Para Badminton International 2024 (silver and bronze)

Spanish Para Badminton International 2024 – I (two gold)

Spanish Para Badminton International 2024 – II (two gold)

BWF Para Badminton World Championships 2024 (bronze)

Age: 24

Discipline: Athletics (T35)

T35 classification is for athletics with coordination impairments

Born with weak legs and an irregular posture, few in her village expected Preethi Pal to even survive.

At the Paris 2024 Paralympics, Preethi set the tone for India’s athletics contingent. The 23-year-old from Meerut clinched a bronze medal in the women’s 100m T35 event with a personal best time of 14.21 seconds.

Not only was this India’s first athletics medal at the Paris Paralympics, but it also marked the first time an Indian stood on the podium for a track event in Paralympic history.

Preethi also won a bronze in the 200m event in the same classification, making her the second Indian woman to win two Paralympic medals at the same edition.

Earlier in March, she won two golds at the Indian Open Para Athletics Championships and later won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan.

Won two bronze medals at the Paris Paralympics.

Won India’s first track medal in Paralympic history.

Became the second Indian woman to win two Paralympic medals in the

same edition.

Won India’s first athletics medal at the Paris Paralympics.

Won two golds at the Indian Open Para Athletics Championships.

Won bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships.

Age: 21

Discipline: Athletics (T20)

T20 classification is for athletes with intellectual impairment.

Deepthi Jeevanji came into the limelight earlier this year when she shattered the women’s 400m T20 world record on her way to winning gold at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe. As she made her Paralympic debut, the 21-year-old from Kalleda village in Warangal emerged as one of India’s top prospects in track events—and she did not disappoint.

Deepthi dominated her heats, qualifying for the final as the heat one topper. However, Turkiye’s Aysel Onder broke her world record of 55.07 seconds in another heat, setting the stage for a thrilling final. As the final race unfolded, Deepthi seemed poised to secure a historic silver medal, but Onder surged past her at the finish line, with Ukraine’s Yuliia Shuliar claiming gold.

With this achievement, Deepthi became only the second Indian athlete to win a medal in a track event at the Paralympic Games. Earlier in 2023, she had already showcased her talent by winning gold in the 400m T20 category at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games, where she set an Asian record with a time of 56.69 seconds.

Held the world record for the women’s 400m T20 event (was eventually broken).

Won gold at the World Para Athletics Championships 2024.

Won bronze at the Paris Paralympics.

Second Indian to win a Paralympic medal in a track event