Elizabeth Smart<\/strong> has found freedom in bodybuilding.<\/p>\n The child safety advocate has been largely best known for her horrific kidnapping case, having been held captive when she was 14 years old in 2002 by religious fanatic Brian David Mitchell<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For the last two decades, she has become known for her activism in the child safety space, but now, she is also becoming known for something entirely different: bodybuilding.<\/p>\n Elizabeth went viral for her April bodybuilding photos (Instagram)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Earlier this year, Elizabeth, 38, left many stunned as she shared photos of herself at a bodybuilding competition, sporting a deep tan and blue bikini with heels. Speaking with Us Weekly<\/a> about her new hobby, and the reaction, she confessed: “I could not believe the response,” noting: “I thought there would be a reaction, but I wasn’t expecting this at all.”<\/p>\n “I had been running for a long time, and I loved it,” she explained. “But one of my knees was starting to hurt, and on the weekends, when I did my [marathon] training runs, it got to a point where they were just so long that once I finished them, I didn’t want to do anything the rest of the day. I just wanted to lie on the sofa and eat chips.”<\/p>\n “I’ve got three little kids who don’t want to just lie on the sofa and eat chips. And also, honestly, I found out that you cannot outrun treat overload. There was a vanity aspect to it,” she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>