Jyothi Surekha Vennam is an Indian compound

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

. She has won multiple gold medals in the compound archery event at the

Archery World Cup The Archery World Cup is a competition, started in 2006, organized by the World Archery Federation, where the archers compete in four stages in four countries and the best eight archers of each category (from 2010, four archers during 2006-09) ad ...

World Archery Championships The World Archery Championships are a series of competitions in Archery organised by the World Archery Federation (WA). The first competition held under that title took place in 1931. Competition archery takes a wide variety of formats, but the ...

and

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until th ...

. In 2023, she became the first Indian archer to win a gold medal at the World Archery Championships and multiple gold medals at the Asian Games. She was awarded the

Arjuna award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, on ...

, India's second highest sporting honor in 2017 becoming the youngest from

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...

to win the award.

Early life

Jyothi was born on 3 July 1996 in

Challapalli Challapalli (officially known as Challapalle) is a village in the Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located in the Challapalli mandal, Machilipatnam revenue division. Geography Challapalli is located at . It has ...

Krishna district Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the di ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...

to Vennam Surendra Kumar and Sri Durga. Her father is a former Kabaddi player and a veterinary doctor in

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises N ...

. Initially, she started training for

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

from the age of 3. In 2001, Jyothi swam 5 km across the Krishna River in three hours, 20 minutes and six seconds and became the youngest to do so entering the ''

Limca Book of Records The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorized into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, advent ...

''. Jyothi completed her schooling from Nalanda Vidya Niketan, Vijayawada. She did her B.Tech. and MBA from KL University.

Career

Jyoti started practicing archery from the age of 11, participating in various tournaments at the junior level. In 2011, she won a bronze medal at the

2011 Asian Archery Championships The 2011 Asian Archery Championships was the 17th edition of the event. It was held at the Azadi Sport Complex in Tehran, Iran from 20 to 24 October 2011 and was organized by Asian Archery Federation. Medal summary Recurve Compound Medal tabl ...

held in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

. In 2013, She won two bronze medals at the

2013 World Archery Youth Championships The 2013 World Archery Youth Championships was the 13th edition of World Youth Archery Championships. The event was held in Wuxi, China 13–20 October 2013, and was organised by World Archery. Junior events were held for those under 20, and Cadet ...

held at

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city a ...

, China. She had competed in five Asian Archery Championships winning four gold, four silver and two bronze medals. She have also competed in multiple

s winning five gold, four silver and seven bronze medals. She won three silver medals in the 2021 World Archery Championships becoming the first Indian to do so and has won one gold, four silver and three bronze medals in the

. In January 2022, she finished in first place in the Women’s Open Pro event at the Lancaster Archery Classic held near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. In 2023, Jyoti won three gold medals in the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially known as the 19th Asian Games (), also known as Hangzhou 2022, ( zh, c=杭州2022, p=Hángzhōu Èr líng èr èr), will be a multi-sport event celebrated in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Hangzhou will be the t ...

becoming the first Indian to win multiple gold medals in archery.

Awards and accolades

*''Pratibha Puraskar'' by

Government of Andhra Pradesh Government of Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as, GOAP, or, Andhra Government, is the subnational government for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is an elected government with 175 MLAs elected to the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh f ...

(2001) *''Exceptional Achievement Award'' by

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

(2002) *''Golden Target award'' by

World Archery Federation The World Archery Federation (WA, also and formerly known as FITA from the French ''Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc'') is the governing body of the sport of archery. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is composed of 156 nationa ...

(2013) *

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, on ...

(2017) * TOISA Archer of the Year'' by

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

(2021) In 2017, then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh

Chandrababu Naidu Nara Chandrababu Naidu ( born 20 April 1950) is an Indian politician and current leader of opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He was also the leader of the opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2004 to ...

awarded her a cash prize of INR 1 crore along with a housing site of 500 sq. yards in

Amaravati Amaravati () is the capital of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the river Krishna in Guntur district. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone at a ceremonial event in Uddand ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vennam, Jyothi Surekha 1996 births Indian female archers Sportswomen from Andhra Pradesh Living people Asian Games medalists in archery Archers at the 2014 Asian Games Archers at the 2018 Asian Games Archers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for India Asian Games silver medalists for India Asian Games bronze medalists for India Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games Sportswomen from Vijayawada, India Universiade medalists in archery Archers from Andhra Pradesh Universiade medalists for India Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade World Archery Championships medalists Competitors at the 2022 World Games World Games bronze medalists World Games medalists in archery