Elizabeth Smart feels ‘liberated’ after deciding to enter a bodybuilding competition
Elizabeth Smart feels “excited” and “liberated” after entering and winning a bodybuilding competition.
The kidnapping survivor opened up about her incredible bodybuilding journey during a visit to “CBS Mornings” on Monday.
“I feel good. I feel good,” Smart, 38, told host Gayle King. “I feel almost free to a certain extent because I think for a long time I wanted to be taken seriously, I wanted whatever I had to say to be something important, I wanted to feel like I was respected.”
She continued, “And I feel like, by doing this and putting this post, I feel free because I can be more than just one thing. I can be a bodybuilder. I feel beautiful and sexy. And I can still be an advocate for women and children against sexual violence.”
But Smart, who described her pivot to bodybuilding as a “celebration” of her body, also admitted that at first she felt “vulnerable” and “nervous” standing on stage in just a bikini.
“I grew up always modest. I don’t think I wore a bikini until I went on my honeymoon,” she told King. So going up on stage in a bikini felt like the most vulnerable thing I could do. I was shaking.
Smart finally won his division at the competition, his fourth overall of the competition, last month.
The child safety advocate took to Instagram on April 21 to celebrate her victory while explaining why she kept her bodybuilding journey a secret for so long.
“I think it’s easy to be called one thing, and honestly, that’s not me and I don’t think any of us are, we’re more than one title, one opinion, one label,” Smart wrote alongside a photo of himself during the contest.
“I like many things, and as I grow older, I realize more and more how important it is to make the most of today, we don’t know what the future holds,” he continued.
The ABC News commentator then celebrated himself and his body.
“I’m proud to do this,” Smart said. “I’m proud of my body, and I want to celebrate it.”
He added, “My body has carried me through all the worst days, all the difficult experiences, built and raised three beautiful children, my body has reached every challenge that I have pursued, and it has carried me so I refuse to be ashamed of it.”
Smart made national headlines in June 2002 when, at the age of 14, she was kidnapped at knifepoint from her family’s home in Salt Lake City.
He was rescued by the police nine months later, in March 2003, on a public road 18 kilometers from his home.
Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, were arrested after Smart’s kidnapping.
Barzee pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a kidnapping in November 2009, and Mitchell was sentenced to two life terms in federal prison for kidnapping and sexual assault in May 2011.
After Smart’s rescue, she became an outspoken activist and advocate for missing persons and victims of sexual abuse.
She met her husband, Matthew Gilmour, in 2009, and they tied the knot in Hawaii in February 2012.
The couple have three children: Chloe, 11, James, 9, and Olivia, 7.
“I only hope that we all find the courage to pursue new experiences, goals, self-improvement, and most importantly happiness,” Smart concluded in a moving Instagram post last month.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
