Remembering her dad. McKayla Maroney mourned her father, Mike Maroney, after his death.
“Love u dad. I can’t believe it’s real. I don’t want to,” the Olympian, 23, captioned a sweet photo of herself and her father on Twitter on Tuesday, January 15. “I’ll miss you forever. Rest in peace. You were the most incredible dad.” She added a red heart emoji and a rose emoji.
Love u dad. I can't believe it's real.
I don't want to. I'll miss you forever.
Rest in peace. You were the most incredible dad. ❤️🌹 pic.twitter.com/0f6pwdAy0z— mckayla (@McKaylaMaroney) January 15, 2019
Mike’s cause of death has not been released. He is also survived by wife Erin Maroney, son Kav Maroney and daughter Tarynn Maroney.
McKayla’s brother paid tribute to his father too. “Dad you taught me everything from how to walk to how to be a man and for that I thank you,” Kav wrote via Instagram on Tuesday. “Thank you for getting up at 4:30am for work and not coming home till 7 pm everyday for more then [sic] 20 years just to keep food on the table, and for us to have a great life. I’m the man of the house now and I promise to hold everything down. I promise.”
He concluded: “I love you and miss you I will live to make you proud till The day I get to see you again. I love you dad.”
News of Mike’s death comes more than a year after McKayla accused former USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexually abusing her. The gold medalist first spoke out in October 2017 amid the #MeToo movement.
“Dr. Nassar was not a doctor,” she wrote in a statement read by a prosecutor at Nassar’s January 2018 sentencing hearing. “He left scars on my psyche that may never go away.”
McKayla’s mother penned a letter to the judge presiding over the case in December 2017. “This experience has shattered McKayla,” Erin’s statement read. “She has transformed from a bubbly, positive, loving, world class athlete into a young adult who was deeply depressed, at times suicidal. At times, I was unsure whether I would open her bedroom door and find her dead.”
Nassar pleaded guilty to three charges of obtaining and possessing child pornography and was sentenced to 60 years in prison in December 2017.
