Asian Games: Jyothi Vennam, India’s archery star was once a record breaking open water swimmer | Asian-games News

Hangzhou: For 15 years, Jyothi Vennam did not win much. In the last six months, she’s won ‘everything everywhere all at once’.The Oscar-winning movie’s reference isn’t merely because of the South Korean opponent she overwhelmed on a cold, wet Saturday morning.
Instead, it is also to underline the stupendous rise of the 27-year-old archer. The record-breaking open water swimmer, whose archery career has been punctuated near-misses and heartbreaks, has achieved almost everything she could – equalling the world record, winning medals at the World Cups, World Championships and now, the Asian Games.
And having won everywhere – from Antalya to Paris – Hangzhou is her moment of crowning glory. The 27-year-old won a hat-trick of gold medals after demolishing South Korea’s So Chaewon 149-146, adding to the mixed and women’s team titles she’d already won this week.
Click here to read all of Mihir Vasavda’s dispatches from Hangzhou
“For Jyothi, this is a very cathartic moment,” says Sergio Pagni, a former Italian compound archer who is now India’s coach. “She has lost so many gold medals in the final during her career. Finally taking the gold she has deserved so much.”
Jyothi’s gold medal came minutes after the country’s newest archery sensation, 17-year-old world champion Aditi Swami, clinched the bronze. A few moments later, teenager Ojas Deotale defeated compatriot, and 2014 Asian Games champion, Abhishek Verma to win the men’s gold medal.
The scarcely believable morning ensured a compound gold clean sweep for India. Crucially, it confirmed India’s top spot in the archery medal table, while relegating South Korea to second for the first time since 1978, when Japan were the best team.
And Jyothi was at the centre of India’s path to the top of the podium. For, her success and struggles are intertwined with the country’s fortunes in an event that is tipped to make its Olympic debut at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
In a parallel universe, the Arjuna Award winner would perhaps have been crossing channels and fighting tides in open waters, rather than the bullseye-binging and medal-raking archer she went on to become.
Her parents want her to stand out from the crowd, the Vijayawada native who grew up on the banks of Krishna, swam in the river before she even turned five. The feat enshrined her name in the Limca Book of Records and a young Jyothi racked up a series of eye-popping performances in swimming.
The lack of facilities to pursue a career in aquatics forced her to switch sports and so in 2007, her father, a college-level kabaddi player who is now a farmer, took her to a local archery academy.
This was also the year when India won its first-ever continental title in compound archery, an event that was introduced in the country only in 2004. At the time, Jyothi was oblivious to this fact. But in the years to follow, she became a figurehead of India’s compound team.
A force at the Asian level, winning the title in 2015, she mysteriously kept on falling short at global events, especially the World Cups – like tennis Grand Slams, archery has four World Cups in a calendar year – and the Asian Games, where an individual title eluded her.
“It was tough,” Jyothi said of the wait to win a gold medal. “Now that the good time has come, I just want to live in the moment.”
That Jyothi led the medal march along with two teenage archers – Aditi Swami and Ojas Deotale – is not an accident.
Around the time when a young Jyothi was learning to pick up a bow and aim an arrow, seeds of future dominance were being sown in remote towns and villages of Maharashtra, where academies mushroomed and innovative methods were introduced to boost mass participation.
“That’s what led to Ojas picking up the sport,” says India coach Praveen Sawant.
As a child, Ojas was an amateur skater and a national-level medal-winning gymnast. He started archery as a ‘fun activity’ because it was ‘everywhere’. “When fun became a profession, I don’t know,” he says.
Perhaps, when he decided to leave his parents’ home in Nagpur and move to Satara where he has been staying with Sawant in a cottage right on the archery field.
“In Satara, we were totally cut off from the rest of the world. It’s a place surrounded mountains and is peaceful. We stay at the ground, sleep there, train there. Our hostel is on the ground. We are connected to archery 24×7,” he says.Most Read
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While India’s archers flattered to deceive for the most part of the last decade, including Jyothi who struggled to win big medals, the work on the grassroots ensured that the foundation was laid for new stars to emerge.
“And we are seeing the results of that today,” says Sanjeeva Singh, India’s high-performance director who is also responsible for introducing compound archery in India. “A lot of young shooters, all teenagers, have sprung up and are pushing the older ones. So, archers like Jyothi know that if they don’t perform, they could lose their spot in the team. That wasn’t the case earlier.”
And so, amidst a new crop of archers who are eventually expected to lead the team, Jyothi continues to thrive. But not before she endured years of self-doubts and underachievements. “I used to see my teammates win medals in their first or second attempt and I thought, ‘Will I ever win a medal?’” Vennam says.
She now has. Three in one week. All gold.