No. 1
Launched 9 October 2026
ATHLeat
Her book of balanced, nutritious, single-serve recipes for athletes, written because standard athlete recipes didn’t work for her. Published September 2026 (Words by G2).
Chennai, India
Miraya Dadabhoy
and I am an ATHLeat
A young rider whose curiosity runs from the arena to the kitchen bench and the printed page.
Latest
Selected for Team India, FEI World Dressage Challenge 2025
In the saddle
Rein check
Eight letters, one arena, and a horse who has to agree with every one of them.
Pick a letter: each one marks a milestone.
- A:First lessonsJun 2014
- K:Back in the saddleAug 2021
- E:A first national qualifierOct 2022
- H:First national team goldDec 2022
- C:Best Asian Youth Rider2024
- M:Team IndiaOct 2025
- B:Gold and silverDec 2025
- F:ATHLeat: One Plate AheadSep 2026
In the kitchen
What’s cooking?
Her kitchen experiments became a book and a published study. Give the bowl a stir.
Stir three times to serve.
Fresh out of the bowl
“…develop new and innovative products which would change the way people look at food.”
Kept in one tin
The recipe box
A book, a published study, a drink on a café menu and a lot of sunflowers: four things she cooked up, filed like recipes. Lift the lid.
Lift the lid: four recipes inside.
No. 2
Silverskin brownies
Coffee silverskin, a roastery by-product, swapped in for part of the flour in a brownie. Tasted blind, and published.
“Just like peanuts, coffee beans also have an outer skin like coating which flies away during the roasting process.”
In her words No. 3
The banana latte
Developed during her product-development internship at Beachville Coffee Roasters.
“After multiple trial and errors and a few recipe changes, the drink was ready. It is called the banana latte.”
In her words No. 4
Sunflower seeds
Co-Founder & Youth Connect Ambassador: she co-founded the Youth Connect branch of Chennai Sunflower City, a movement with 300,000+ sunflower seeds shared.
“I watched an idea multiply into a movement.”
In her words
Off the podium
What medals don’t show
The results pages list the medals. These are four rounds that don’t appear there.
The round she was disqualified from
- What happened
- At the 2023 Junior Nationals her show-jumping horse was frightened by people sitting around the arena. She asked the marshals to stand; they misunderstood and left, and speaking to them during the competition got her disqualified.
- What she did
- She rode her other horse in the next round and finished clear, then switched disciplines for her two dressage events.
- What changed
- The show-jumping result was gone; the rest of her Nationals wasn’t. She still finished with team gold, individual silver and fourth in dressage.
Time out of the saddle
- What happened
- There was a stretch when she couldn’t ride, just as school exams arrived. She sat the exams.
- What she did
- She stepped back from riding for a while and let time do its work.
- What changed
- Patience became part of training: knowing when to wait is part of the sport.
Coming back to it
- What happened
- Coming back wasn’t a straight line: the return had setbacks of its own.
- What she did
- She kept coming back to it, at her own pace.
- What changed
- She is still riding, and still competing.
Restriction → a reason to learn
- What happened
- Many of the usual athlete’s options (shakes, bars, powders) didn’t work for her.
- What she did
- Around Grade 10 she began studying nutrition and cooking her own meals, testing and adapting recipes.
- What changed
- Those recipes became ATHLeat, and the questions behind them led her towards food science.
Stuck on her
Fun facts, no filler
Seven stickers, seven true stories. Press one to read what’s behind the pun.
She developed the banana latte on the menu at Beachville Coffee Roasters.
Gold School Colour Badge: one of six students at her school recognised across academics and sports.
First riding lessons at four, six years away from riding, then back in the saddle.
PADI Open Water scuba diver, with 15+ dives logged.
Two school theatre productions, and the School Day props team from Grades 8 to 11.
She taught beginner riding workshops to more than 50 riders, ranging in age from 6 to 50.
She ran online origami workshops for more than 100 children.
For the 60-second reader
Quick questions
Why food science?
It started at her own stove: the usual athlete’s options didn’t suit her, so she cooked for herself, and cooking raised questions about what food is made of. An internship at a coffee roastery turned one of those questions into published research.
Why dressage?
She rode both show jumping and dressage, then chose to give dressage her whole focus: the precision, the repetition, and the partnership with her horse.
What’s ATHLeat?
ATHLeat: One Plate Ahead is her book of balanced, nutritious, single-serve recipes for athletes. Published September 2026 (Words by G2) · launch event 9 October 2026.
What does she do for fun?
Scuba diving, piano, origami, school theatre, and more cooking than strictly necessary.
Looking ahead
The next test
Goals she has spoken about in interviews. These are aspirations, not results.
Movement 1
AspirationThe Asian Games
Competing for India at the Asian Games is a goal she has spoken about publicly.
Sources: The Week(opens external site) (15 Feb 2025), CNBC-TV18(opens external site)
Movement 2
AspirationThe Olympic arena
Beyond the Asian Games, she has named the Olympics as the long-term horizon.
Source: The Week(opens external site) (15 Feb 2025)
Movement 3
AspirationA stronger sport at home
She wants to see more international-standard arenas, visiting coaches and sponsorship for equestrian sport in India, and more young Indian riders coming through.
Sources: SheThePeople(opens external site) (12 Feb 2025), The Week(opens external site) (15 Feb 2025)
With the right support, I believe I can continue to achieve great things … represent my country at higher levels of international competition.
Source: The Week(opens external site) (15 Feb 2025)
The record
The facts, fast
- Team IndiaSelected for Team India · 2nd nationally, FEI World Dressage Challenge 2025.
- Asia goldIndividual gold at the FEI World Dressage Challenge 2024, with 72.325%, the highest score in Asia.
- 5th in the worldPlaced fifth overall in the world and named Best Asian Youth Rider by the Equestrian Federation of India, 2024.
- National team goldTeam gold · Individual silver (Musical Dressage), Junior National Equestrian Championship 2025.
- Published researchCoffee silverskin in brownies, in Food Marketing & Technology, September 2026.
- Published authorATHLeat: One Plate Ahead (2026), and Positive Thoughts (2020).
- In the pressOn NDTV and CNBC-TV18, and in The Week, SheThePeople and Forbes India.
- 300,000+ seedsShared by Chennai Sunflower City, whose Youth Connect branch she co-founded (Co-Founder & Youth Connect Ambassador).
Trains at Chennai Equestrian Centre with coaches Isabelle Hasleder and Vikas Pandey.
Ride. Cook. Research. Repeat.