Elizabeth Smart Reveals She’s a Bodybuilder 24 Years After Her Kidnapping

April 22, 2026

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Elizabeth Smart revealed her impressive new hobby: competitive bodybuilding.

On Tuesday, the 38-year-old kidnapping survivor and victims advocate shocked fans when she posted a bikini photo from a bodybuilding competition stage on her Instagram.

In the photo, Smart flexed her tan muscles in a navy blue bikini, wearing heels and silver jewelry. Her thick blond hair was parted to the side and curled.

According to Fox 11, Smart competed in the Wasatch Warrior competition in Salt Lake City on Saturday and secured multiple prizes: she won gold in the novice category, placed third in the Masters category for competitors over 35, and secured second place in Class D.

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Smart wrote in the caption, “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 then revealed that, despite her initial hesitation about the sport, this was not her first time on the competitive stage.

“This is actually the fourth competition I’ve done, but I was too afraid to post it before. 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,” she continued.

On June 5, 2002, at just 14 years old, Smart was kidnapped from her family’s Salt Lake City home and held captive by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee for nine months.

A decade after her highly publicized rescue on March 12, 2003, and the 2009 trial of Mitchell and Barzee that resulted in their incarceration, Smart wrote about the ordeal in her memoir, My Story.

She now advocates for survivors and child safety and created the Elizabeth Smart Foundation to empower victims of sexual violence.

Since her kidnapping, Elizabeth Smart has advocated for children and survivors.

George Frey / Getty Images

Part of her inspiration to share her bodybuilding journey publicly came from thinking about other survivors.

“Then this past weekend it struck me how eerily familiar these feelings and thoughts are for too many survivors,” she wrote, adding, “I think it’s easy to be labeled as one thing, and honestly, that’s not me nor do I think it’s any of us we are more than just one topic, one idea, one label.”

Smart reminded her followers that people contain multitudes, and she did not wish to be boxed in.

Elizabeth Smart and her family visited the White House in 2003 after Smart’s story went public. Pictured here with her father, Ed Smart, and former U.S. President George W. Bush in an event where President Bush signed new child safety measures into law.

“I am interested in many things, and as I get older I realize more and more how important it is to make the most of today, we don’t know what tomorrow brings,” she wrote.

Adding, “And I don’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.”

Smart noted that she was proud of her body, pushing and challenging herself to reach her incredible competition physique.

“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 wrote.

She continued, “I refuse to feel embarrassed about trying something new and am embracing my chance at life to the absolute fullest I can. I only hope that we all find the courage to chase new experiences, goals, bettering ourselves, and most importantly happiness.”

Elizabeth Smart had to testify multiple times against her kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell. Pictured here at 23, leaving the Federal Court in Salt Lake City, Utah, in November, 2010.

The post has gained over 100,000 likes and thousands of comments overnight, praising Smart as “brilliant” and “amazing.”

“Unexpected, but all I see is a survivor who has taken her power back. I see a strong woman who wouldn’t be broken when the most evil tried to break you as a child. I see strength,” one person wrote.