Rani Rampal becomes first ever hockey player to win World Games Athlete of the Year’ award

Indian women’s team captain Rani Rampal became the first-ever hockey player to win the prestigious ‘World Games Athlete of the Year’ award.The World Games announced the winner after 20 days of polling by sports fans worldwide.This award is given for outstanding performance, social concern, and good behavior. People across the world select the winner through voting. She received 1,99,477 votes out of a total of 7,05,610 votes. The Facebook post of The World Games reads, “Huge congratulations to The World Games Athlete of the Year: Hockey star Rani! Rani won the race with a massive number of votes: 199,477.

Other winners

• Ukrainian karate player Stanislav Horuna secured second and Canadian athlete Rhea Stinn finished third in Powerlifting.
• A total of 25 players from different sports were nominated for this award. Apart from them, Sara Lopez of Columbia secured the eighth position in the Archery. She received a total of 28431 votes.
• She made a world record for a perfect 15-arrow round. She is also the first woman to shoot perfect 150 at stage three of the World Cup held in Medellin.

Previous winner

• In 2019, the award was received by the Russian duo Maria Chernova-Giorgi Pataria, who performed well in acrobatic gymnastics. They received a total of 1,59,348 votes to win the award.

About Rani Rampal

• Rani Rampal is a famous hockey player of India. She is called the ‘queen’ of Indian hockey. She was the youngest player (15 years) of the Indian hockey team participating in the 2010 World Cup. Currently, she is the captain of the Indian women’s hockey team.
• She played an important role in 2009’s Asia Cup to win a silver medal. She was also a part of the Indian team during the 2010’s Commonwealth Games and the 2010 Asian Games.
• This year, Rani Rampal was awarded the Padma Shri. The Indian women’s hockey team won the Asia Cup in the year 2017 in her captaincy.

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