Jyothi Surekha Vennam

Jyothi Surekha Vennam is an Indian compound archer. She has won multiple gold medals in the compound archery event at the Archery World Cup, World Archery Championships and Asian Games. 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, India's second highest sporting honor in 2017 becoming the youngest from South India to win the award.

Early life
Jyothi was born on 3 July 1996 in Challapalli in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh to Vennam Surendra Kumar and Sri Durga. Her father is a former Kabaddi player and a veterinary doctor in Vijayawada.

Initially, she started training for swimming 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. 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 held in Tehran, Iran. In 2013, She won two bronze medals at the 2013 World Archery Youth Championships held at Wuxi, China. She had competed in five Asian Archery Championships winning four gold, four silver and two bronze medals. She have also competed in multiple Archery World Cups 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 World Archery Championships. 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 becoming the first Indian to win multiple gold medals in archery.

Awards and accolades

 * Pratibha Puraskar by Government of Andhra Pradesh (2001)
 * Exceptional Achievement Award by Government of India (2002)
 * Golden Target award by World Archery Federation (2013)
 * Arjuna Award by Government of India (2017)
 * TOISA Archer of the Year'' by Times of India (2021)

In 2017, then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu awarded her a cash prize of INR 1 crore along with a housing site of 500 sq. yards in Vijayawada or Amaravati.