64-Year-Old Great-Grandmother Takes 2nd Place at Bikini Contest

A Los Angeles grandma beat a bunch of women half her age in a bikini contest in Atlanta, Georgia earlier this month.

By Jorge Rivas Jun 21, 2012

A Los Angeles grandma beat a bunch of women half her age in a bikini contest in Atlanta, Georgia earlier this month. Ruby Carter-Pikes, 64, won second place in the FitSciences Championships on June 2. "It’s like showing people age is only a number and you don’t have to get cut up or do anything crazy, just be healthy and take care of your body," [Carter-Pikes told KNBC-LA Wednesday.](http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Ruby-Carter-Pikes-FitSciences-Championships-Los-Angeles-LA-Atlanta-Georgia-Fitness-Health-Bikini-Grandmother-Grandma-159830715.html) "Coming from a black family, and most Hispanics, too, we die from high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, kidney failure, it’s not because of our genes, it’s because of what we eat," she told KNBC-LA. According to her profile on the [social networking site Body Proud](http://www.bodyproud.org/profile/RubyCarterPikes), Carter-Pikes seriously got in to fitness after several family members were affected with diabetes. > It wasn’t until I was an adult and had four children that I really start to realize and recognize the devastation of my family’s poor eating habits and the effects it had on the health my love ones including my grandmother, mother, aunts, sisters, uncles, brothers, etc. For example, my grandmother died at 57 after being diagnosed with heart problem and high cholesterol; my mother fought the battle of diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease; a sister leg was amputated as a result diabetes (while on dialysis). A niece was diagnosed with diabetes at the early age of 11 and was prescribed insulin shots immediately. She lived with the disease until the age of 32. Mrs. Carter-Pikes, keep inspiring us all!