Former kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart finds empowerment as a bodybuilder

Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News on Apr 22, 2026

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Elizabeth Smart revealed she has been competing in bodybuilding competitions, sharing a bikini photo that shows off her dramatic physical transformation.

“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 captioned her photo.

The image features a grinning Smart onstage at the Wasatch Warrior bodybuilding and fitness competition in Salt Lake City over the weekend, according to People.

Smart, also a child safety advocate, shared that it was the fourth such event she’d competed in so far, adding that she had not yet been ready to share her new hobby until now.

“I was too afraid to post it before,” she explained.

“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,” Smart continued. “Then this past weekend it struck me how eerily familiar these feelings and thoughts are for too many survivors.”

Smart was just 14 years old when she was kidnapped from her Utah bedroom at knifepoint the night of June 5, 2002. For the next nine months, she was held captive and sexually abused by Brian David Mitchell, a man her family previously hired to do odd jobs at their home. Both Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, his accomplice and wife at the time, were captured by law enforcement shortly after Smart was rescued.

Mitchell is serving life in prison after being found guilty of kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in sexual activity.

Barzee, meanwhile, took a plea deal from prosecutors to avoid serving a lengthier sentence. She spent 15 years behind bars before she was released on parole in September 2018. She was again arrested in 2025 after visiting multiple parks, which is a violation of her status as a sex offender.

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