Elizabeth Smart, 38, has moved on to the next phase of her life with a strong new hobby: bodybuilding.
The former kidnapping victim who became an advocate for child safety and an ABC News correspondent said she never expected this would happen.
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“When I posted the pictures in my story of me standing on stage in a bikini it probably shocked many of you, and I understand the shock because had you asked me if I would ever compete in a bodybuilding show a couple of years ago I would have said, ‘absolutely not! Never in 100 years!’” she wrote in the caption of an Instagram post shared Wednesday.
This message was accompanied by a photo of her competing at the Wasatch Warrior competition in Salt Lake City on Saturday. She took home first place in the Fit Model division, a category for entry-level female bodybuilders.
“This is actually the fourth competition I’ve done, but I was too afraid to post it before,” Smart revealed. “Worried that I would be judged, not taken seriously, somehow perceived as less than or now unworthy to continue work as an advocate for all survivors. Then this past weekend it struck me how eerily familiar these feelings and thoughts are for too many survivors.”
As for her reasons, Smart wrote that she didn’t want to “reach the end of my life and look back and feel regret for only living a half-life, not going after all the things I want to do and try.”
“This was a big change for me, it was hard, it pushed me, challenged me not to give up. I am so proud of myself for doing this. I am so proud of my body, and I want to celebrate it,” she wrote. “My body has carried me through every worst day, every hellish grueling experience, it’s created and nurtured three beautiful children, my body has risen to every single challenge life has presented it with, and carried me through so I refuse to be ashamed of it.”
Smart was taken from her Salt Lake home in 2002 when she was 14 years old. She was discovered by police 9 months later. Smart had been kidnapped from her bedroom at knifepoint by Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Smart was raped daily by Mitchell as he hid her at campsites around Utah.
Mitchell was convicted and is serving a life sentence while Barzee was released in 2018. She was arrested again in 2025, however, after violating conditions of her sex offender status.
In the aftermath of the crime, Smart became an advocate for other victims of sexual assault by creating the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. She has been married since 2012 and has three children.
There is a Netflix documentary about her ordeal called, “Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart.”
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