The very few physical sports that are quite well known and famous in India, the Wrestling is amongst the top positioned one. This very sport has produced a very good number of quality wrestlers who did perform very well in the competitions of various levels like National or International and also made the people of India feel proud for them. Being such a successful sport, it is quite natural that the winner`s list of the most prestigious and honourable sport award in India that is the "Arjuna Award" will definitely have a good number of the wrestlers` names. In fact, the wrestlers made their debut in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" in the very first year of the award`s journey when Hav. Udey Chanf won the award in1961.

The wrestlers were quite regular in entering their names in the list for the next few years when they had the winners of the award like Malwa who won in 1962. In the year of 1963, G. Andalkar became the winner and he was followed by Bishamber Singh who won it in 1964. After a year`s let off, the wrestlers started to win the award on regular basis. In 1966, Bhim Singh won the award and Mukhtiar Singh won the award in 1967. In 1969, the award went to the name of Master Chandgi Ram who won it in the category of Indian style wrestling. In the following year that is in 1970, Sudesh Kumar became the winner and Prem Nath claimed it in 1972. After him, Jagroop Singh and Satpal won the award in the years of 1973 and 1974 respectively.

After the year of 1974, there was a little gap for the wrestlers and they again started winning the award in 1978-79 with the help of Rajinder Singh. Jagminder Singh received the award in the year of 1980-81 and Kartar Singh won it in 1982. Then three years later, Mahabir Singh claimed the award in the year of 1985. From the year of 1987, there was a regular visit of the wrestlers in the winners` list. During this time, Subhash became successful to win the award in 1987 and Rajesh Kumar won it in 1988. Satywan and Ombir Singh followed him who won the award in the years of 1989 and 1990 respectively. The famous wrestler Pappu Yadav became the winner in 1992 and it went to the name of Ashok Kumar in 1993. After that, the wrestlers started to have more than one winner in the winners` list of the award from the year of 1997 when both the wrestlers like Jagdish Singh and Sanjay Kumar won the award.

There were two representatives of the wrestlers in the winners` list in the year of 1998 as well. In that year Kaka Pawar and Rohtas Singh Dahiya became the joint winner. In 1999, the "Arjuna Award" had the name of Ashok Kumar in its winners` list and the year of 2000 was the most successful year as far as the wrestlers are concerned. In that very year, four wrestlers won the "Arjuna Award" in the names of Randhir Singh, Kripa Shakar Patel, K.D. Jadhav and Naresh Kumar. Amongst them, K.D. Jadhav won it after his death. The year of 2001 went winner less for the wrestlers and in 2002, Palwinder Singh Cheema and Sujeet Mann won the "Arjuna Award" combinedly. After Shokhinder Tomar won it in 2003, Anuj Kumar became the winner in the year of 2004. Sushil Kumar is the last winner of the "Arjuna Award" so far on behalf of the wrestlers in India who won it in 2005.The first Woman to won the award for wrestling is Geetika Jakhar of Haryana in 2007.

The discussion that is done above proves one thing clearly that there was never a lack of talent in the field of Wrestling in India and that`s why people have been seeing a lot of wrestlers winning the "Arjuna Award" almost every year. So, by seeing this scenario, an Indian can definitely be hopeful to have more and more successful wrestlers in future.

Year	Recipient Name	Year	Recipient Name
1961	Hav. Udey Chanf	1988	Rajesh Kumar
1962	Malwa	1989	Satywan
1963	G. Andalkar	1990	Ombir Singh
1964	Bishamber Singh	1992	Pappu Yadav
1966	Bhim Singh	1993	Ashok Kumar
1967	Mukhtiar Singh	1997	Jagdish Singh, Sanjay Kumar
1969	Master Chandgi Ram (Indian style wrestling)	1998	Kaka Pawar, Rohtas Singh Dahiya
1970	Sudesh Kumar	1999	Ashok Kumar
1972	Prem Nath	2000	Randhir Singh, Kripa Shakar Patel, K.D. Jadhav (Posthumously), Naresh Kumar
1973	Jagroop Singh	2002	Palwinder Singh Cheema, Sujeet Mann
1974	Satpal	2003	Shokhinder Tomar
1978-79	Rajinder Singh	2004	Anuj Kumar
1980-81	Jagminder Singh	2005	Sushil Kumar
1982	Kartar Singh	2006	Geetika Jakhar
1985	Mahabir Singh	2008	Alka Tomar
1987	Subhash	2009	Yogeshwar Dutt