Elizabeth Smart has revealed that she is a competitive bodybuilder and posted a shocking photo of her super toned physique.
Smart, 38, shared a photo of herself on Instagram Tuesday wearing a navy blue bikini and transparent heels, telling her followers it was from her fourth bodybuilding competition, which she competed in over the weekend.
The mother-of-three looked confident as she posed on stage, highlighting her toned muscles and flashing a wide smile.
The child safety advocate admitted that she was previously too scared to post about competing in bodybuilding competitions.
“[I was]worried that I wouldn’t be valued, that I wouldn’t be taken seriously, that I would in some way be considered unworthy or now unworthy of continuing to work as an advocate for all survivors,” she explained. “And last weekend I realized how eerily familiar these feelings and thoughts are to so many survivors.”
Smart said she doesn’t want to be labeled by any one thing and wants to live a life with no regrets.
“This was a big change for me. It was tough, but it pushed me and challenged me to not give up,” she said. “I’m so proud of myself doing this. I’m so proud of my body and I want to celebrate it.”
“My body has carried me through every bad day, every hellish experience. It has given birth to and raised three beautiful children. My body has carried me through every challenge that life has to offer, and I am not ashamed of it,” she continued.
She concluded: “I’m not embarrassed to try something new and enjoy life’s opportunities to the fullest.”
According to Fox 11, Smart competed in the entry level division of the Wasatch Warrior competition in Salt Lake City on Saturday.
And she didn’t go home empty-handed, taking first place in the novice division, third in the Masters 35 and over division and second in Class D, the newspaper reported.
Smart, a kidnapping survivor who was taken from her Salt Lake City bedroom at the age of 14, recently revisited her heartbreaking case in the Netflix documentary “Kidnapping: Elizabeth Smart,” which premiered in January.
After being rescued by police on March 12, 2003 after being held captive for nine months, she became an advocate for sexual assault victims and a child safety activist through her work with the Elizabeth Smart Foundation.
Smart married her husband Matthew Gilmore in September 2012. The couple have three children, Chloe, 11, James, 9, and Olivia, 6.
