Elizabeth Smart: Reclaiming Her Body Through Bodybuilding

The first time Elizabeth Smart stepped onto a bodybuilding stage, she was terrified. Her smile froze, her hands shook, and at one point, her ring snagged her hair extensions, ripping out a chunk of hair mid-pose. “I just ended up ripping through the extension and just taking out a chunk of my hair, and then turning around and smiling,” she recalled, laughing about it now. At the time, she wanted to run offstage. Instead, she kept posing — in towering heels, under bright stage lights, celebrating the body she’d spent years trying to survive inside.

From Captivity to the Stage

Smart, now 38, was just 14 years old when a self-proclaimed prophet abducted her at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City bedroom in June 2002. For nine months, she was held captive in the woods near her home, subjected to repeated sexual assault, humiliation, and psychological manipulation. Her face was plastered across television screens and newspaper front pages as the world watched the search unfold. She was rescued in March 2003.

In the decades since, Smart has become a prominent child safety advocate, founding the Elizabeth Smart Foundation in 2011 and authoring books including her latest, “Detours,” which describes trauma as an unwanted detour in life. But her latest chapter is one few could have predicted: competitive bodybuilding.

A New Path to Healing

Smart began strength training about 18 months ago after knee pain forced her to stop marathon running. She now trains five to six days a week, about 45 minutes per session, with coach and friend Robyn Maher. On April 18, 2026, she competed in the Wasatch Warrior NPC bodybuilding competition in Salt Lake City, winning first place in the Fit Model Novice category, second place in Fit Model, and third place in Fit Model Masters 35+.

According to NPR, Smart publicly revealed her bodybuilding journey via Instagram on April 21, posting a photo of herself on stage in a bikini. “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,” she wrote.

The Science of Strength and Healing

Mounting research supports what Smart is experiencing. A 2025 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that resistance training was linked to reduced PTSD symptoms and improved emotional well-being among trauma-exposed adults. A 2023 study in the same journal found that many trauma survivors described weight lifting as empowering, helping them rebuild confidence and feel safer in their bodies.

Robyn Brickel, a licensed therapist specializing in trauma, explained to NPR that survivors often disconnect from their bodies as a survival mechanism. “When early childhood trauma happens, especially sexual trauma, people disconnect from their bodies because it’s unsafe,” Brickel said. “That’s how they survive.” She noted that many survivors believe their bodies betrayed them and often try to make themselves invisible. Bodybuilding represents the opposite choice — stepping into visibility and celebration.

Challenging Expectations

Smart has been candid about the fear and vulnerability involved. “I don’t think I wore a bikini until I was on my honeymoon, so stepping up on stage in a bikini felt like the most vulnerable thing I could possibly do,” she told CBS Mornings. She also acknowledged initial anxiety about public perception: “I was scared, scared of judgment, scared that people would look at me and be like, ‘Oh well, she’s becoming the very thing she fights against.’”

But she has firmly rejected that framing. “I can be a bodybuilder. I can feel beautiful or sexy, and I can still be an advocate for women and children against sexual violence,” she said. “We can be lots of things.”

What’s Next

Smart is considering another competition later this year in Nashville — an all-female event recognizing women who have survived trauma. Her face lights up as she talks about it, not because trauma disappears, but because she no longer wants survival to be the only lens through which she sees herself.

“I’m at a point in my life where I want to celebrate it,” Smart said. “I don’t want to carry shame about my body.”

Her journey challenges narrow narratives about trauma survivors and opens conversations about the relationship between body image, fitness, and healing. As she put it simply: “There’s no finish line. I hope I never stop progressing.”