Elizabeth Smart<\/strong> is in her bodybuilding era, and it’s epic. The activist and survivor has been quietly competing in bodybuilding, revealing on social media that she has competed in four competitions. \u00a0Over the weekend, she took first place in her category, “Fit Model Novice” at the Wasatch Warrior competition in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she competed under her married name, Elizabeth Gilmour.\u00a0<\/p>\n She shared a photo looking ripped on stage, with a heartfelt caption. \u201cWhen I posted the pictures\u2026 it probably shocked many of you,\u201d Smart wrote. \u201cHad you asked me if I would ever compete in a bodybuilding show a couple of years ago, I would have said, \u2018absolutely not! Never in 100 years!”<\/p>\n For a woman who has survived literal hell, she admitted she was afraid to post pictures of herself competing. \u201cThis is actually the fourth competition I\u2019ve done, but I was too afraid to post it before,\u201d she admitted, pointing to something deeper than stage nerves. \u201cWorried 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.\u201d<\/p>\n That hesitation and that fear of being boxed in is exactly what pushed her to finally share. \u201cIt struck me how eerily familiar these feelings and thoughts are for too many survivors,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI think it\u2019s easy to be labeled as one thing\u2026 we are more than just one topic, one idea, one label.\u201d<\/p>\n And for Smart, this moment is about refusing to live small. \u201cI don\u2019t want to reach the end of my life and look back and feel regret for only living a half-life,\u201d she said. \u201cNot going after all the things I want to do and try.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s not downplaying how hard it was either. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy body has carried me through every worst day, every hellish, grueling experience\u2026 my body has risen to every single challenge life has presented it with\u2026 so I refuse to be ashamed of it,” she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n So stepping onto a bodybuilding stage, in a bikini, no less, isn\u2019t just about fitness. It\u2019s about reclaiming narrative.<\/p>\n At just 14 years old, \u00a0on June 5, 2002, Smart was abducted from her home at knifepoint by Brian David Mitchell<\/strong>. It was a media storm that gripped the country for months, with missing people fliers, and her parents pleading for the kidnapper to return their daughter on television.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian had kept her captive in a campsite on the outskirts of Salt Lake City and later in San Diego County with his wife, Wanda Barzee.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Elizabeth was often in public with her captors, dressed head to toe in white robes. \u00a0She was identified by police in Sandy, Utah, approximately 18 miles from her home, nine months after her abduction.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Smart](\"https:\/\/www.hola.com\/us\/horizon\/original_aspect_ratio\/1e71cb06b84f-22458251.jpg\")
\u00a9 NPC Wasatch Warrior<\/span><\/div>![\"She](\"https:\/\/www.hola.com\/us\/horizon\/original_aspect_ratio\/cb685393af2e-22458261.jpg\")
\u00a9 NPC Wasatch Warrior<\/span><\/div>![\"She](\"https:\/\/www.hola.com\/us\/horizon\/original_aspect_ratio\/c0b9cd76548c-22458242.jpg\")
\u00a9 NPC Wasatch Warrior<\/span><\/div>![\"She](\"https:\/\/www.hola.com\/us\/horizon\/original_aspect_ratio\/bc7eab9721d3-22458219.jpg\")
\u00a9 NPC Wasatch Warrior<\/span><\/div>Her story\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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\u00a9 Getty<\/span><\/div>
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