- Elizabeth Smart, 38, an activist renowned for her work against sexual violence, has publicly revealed her new pursuit as a competitive bodybuilder, sharing a photo from the Wasatch Warrior bodybuilding competition in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Smart was kidnapped at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. She was repeatedly raped, drugged and starved during her nine months in captivity.
- “When I posted the pictures in my [Instagram] story of me standing on stage in a bikini, it probably shocked many of you,” she wrote alongside a photo of her on stage. “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!’”
- “This is actually the fourth competition I’ve done, but I was too afraid to post it before,” she added, while expressing profound pride in her body for enduring past traumas and nurturing her three children.
- Smart said that her fears about making her bodybuilding career public were “eerily familiar” feelings for “too many survivors.” She wrote, “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.”
IN FULL
Elizabeth Smart stuns fans with new look after competing in recent bodybuilding competition
