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Elizabeth Smart began bodybuilding after stepping away from marathon running due to its physical and time demands
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Competing in bodybuilding helped Smart reframe her relationship with her body and celebrate its strength and resilience
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Smart told Gayle King on CBS Mornings the experience has allowed her to embrace new challenges while continuing her advocacy for survivors of abuse
Elizabeth Smart is embracing a new chapter — and a new sense of freedom.
Appearing on CBS Mornings on Monday, May 4, the kidnapping survivor and child safety advocate opened up to Gayle King about what competing in bodybuilding has meant to her, just weeks after placing first in her division at a competition.
“I feel good. I feel excited,” Smart said. “I feel almost liberated to a degree because I think for so long I wanted to be taken seriously, I wanted whatever I had to say to matter, I wanted to feel like I was respected.”
“And I also feel like, by doing this and putting this post out there, I feel liberated because I can be more than just one thing,” she continued. “I can be a bodybuilder. I can feel beautiful and sexy. And I can still be an advocate for women and children against sexual violence.”
Smart was abducted at 14 and held captive for nine months before being rescued in 2003. In the years since, she has become a leading advocate for child safety and a prominent voice supporting survivors of sexual violence.
The 38-year-old’s journey to bodybuilding began after she stepped away from marathon running, which had become increasingly demanding on her body and time.
“My knees started hurting a little more, I had to do a whole series of stretches before I’d go for a run,” said Smart, who shares three kids (Chloé, 11, James, 9, and Olivia, 7) with husband Matthew Gilmour. “And it was taking up so much of my day, especially on the weekend when my kids were home. By the time I’d finish my long runs, I’d be useless for the rest of the day.”
When her trainer, Robyn Maher, reached out about working together again, Smart said she realized she needed a new goal — and a new challenge.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t vanity involved,” she told King with a laugh. “I was like, ‘I want to look amazing. I need a goal and I need a deadline.’ Otherwise I’d be like, ‘My diet starts Monday. My diet starts Monday.’ ”
Elizabeth Smart on stage at her bodybuilding competition
Credit: Robyn Maher/Instagram
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That goal led her to bodybuilding — a pursuit she said initially felt far outside her comfort zone.
“Oh, it was terrifying. It was absolutely terrifying,” Smart recalled on CBS Mornings of her first competition, which took place from April 17 to 18 in Salt Lake City, Utah. “I grew up always just being so modest. I don’t think I wore a bikini until I was on my honeymoon. So stepping up on stage in a bikini felt like the most vulnerable thing I could possibly do.”
Despite the nerves, Smart said the experience has ultimately helped her reframe her relationship with her body — something she knows can be especially complex for survivors of abuse.
“In my line of work, I have met so many victims of sexual abuse and violence who feel like their body betrayed them,” she said. “We see a lot of self-harm, eating disorders, feelings of self-loathing.”
“For me doing this, I feel like it has been a celebration of my body because it has carried me through every worst day, every bad experience,” she continued. “I’ve had three beautiful children. It still carries me through life, and I am so grateful to my body for being where I am today that I want to celebrate it.”
“And I shouldn’t be ashamed of it,” she added. “And I shouldn’t be ashamed that I’ve taken care of it and worked to build it strong. And I’m very proud of myself.”
Read the original article on People
