The kidnapping survivor took first place in the Fit Model Novice category at the Wasatch Warrior competition in Salt Lake City.

Elizabeth Smart wins bodybuilding competition: ‘I am so proud of my body and I want to celebrate it’

The kidnapping survivor took first place in the Fit Model Novice category at the Wasatch Warrior competition in Salt Lake City.

By Kathleen Perricone

April 23, 2026 4:48 p.m. ET

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Elizabeth Smart in the Wasatch Warrior bodybuilding and fitness competition. Credit:

Robyn Maher/Instagram

- Elizabeth Smart won Fit Model Novice at the Wasatch Warrior bodybuilding and fitness competition in Salt Lake City.

- The kidnapping survivor revealed this was her fourth time competing, but she was "afraid" to publicly share until now.

- Smart was 14 when she was abducted from her home and held captive for nine months until she was rescued in March 2003.

Elizabeth Smart is showing her strength inside and out.

The child safety advocate, who survived a 2002 kidnapping as a teen, won first place in the Fit Model Novice category at the Wasatch Warrior bodybuilding and fitness competition in Salt Lake City over the weekend.

It was actually her fourth time competing, “but I was too afraid to post it before,” Smart confessed in an Instagram caption.

Elizabeth Smart competing at Wasatch Warrior.

Robyn Maher/Instagram

The image of the mom of three, looking svelte in a navy bikini and posing onstage, came as a shock to many of her followers — and Smart herself admitted “never in 100 years” would she have ever envisioned doing something like this.

As she explained, she had worried that publicizing her interest in bodybuilding might make people perceive her as “unworthy to continue work as an advocate for all survivors.”

Elizabeth Smart opens up about surprise bodybuilding pivot: 'I refuse to be ashamed'

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But after the competition, in which she also ranked third in the Fit Model Masters 35+ category, the 38-year-old decided to reclaim her narrative as a survivor of sexual assault, more than two decades after she was rescued from abductors Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee.

“I am interested in many things, and as I get older I realize more and more how important it is to make the most of today, we don’t know what tomorrow brings,” Smart explained in her Instagram caption. “And 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. This was a big change for me, it was hard, it pushed me, challenged me not to give up.”

In 2002, Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom and held captive by Mitchell and Barzee for nine agonizing months spent shackled and subjected to daily sexual assault. That’s why now, competing as a bodybuilder, provides a unique way of healing from the traumatic experience.

“I am so proud of my body, and I want to celebrate it,” Smart said. “My body has carried me through every worst day, every hellish grueling experience, it’s created and nurtured three beautiful children, my body has risen to every single challenge life has presented it with, and carried me through so I refuse to be ashamed of it. I refuse to feel embarrassed about trying something new and am embracing my chance at life to the absolute fullest I can.”

Elizabeth Smart (center).

Mackenzie Paralee Holsombake/Instagram

This isn’t the first time Smart has done something outside her comfort zone. In 2021, she competed on *The Masked Dancer* as Ms. Moth.

When she got the call, she thought producers had the wrong number. “I’m not a dancer. I’ve never trained. That’s not my forte in life,” Smart told ** at the time.

Her initial reaction was to say “no,” but her grandmother’s recent passing made the young woman rethink her own life. “She did a lot of really serious things, but she also had a lot of fun,” Smart said.

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“I feel like I've lived a pretty serious life," she acknowledged. "I’ve dedicated really a lot of my life since I was rescued from being kidnapped to serious issues… so why not do something that's fun? Why not do something that brings a little bit of light to my life and maybe to people watching?”

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