Retired Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney has just announced that she is in mourning after the death of her beloved father Mike Maroney earlier this month.
McKayla, 23, took to Twitter to reveal that Mike had passed at the age of 59, and his cause of death has not yet been made public.
“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,” she tweeted.
Her brother Kav also took to social media to post about his death in a lengthy Instagram post.
“Dad, you taught me everything. From how to walk, to how to be a man, and for that, I thank you,” he wrote. “Thank you for getting up at 4:30 a.m. for work and not coming home till 7 p.m. every day for more than 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. I love you and miss you, and I will live to make you proud till the day I get to see you again. I love you, dad.”
This comes after a difficult year for McKayla in which she had to testify against Larry Nassar, the former doctor for the Olympic team. McKayla was one of the first girls to come forward and publicly say that Nassar had abused her.
He told me he was going to do a checkup on me and that was the first day I was abused,” she recalled.
McKayla has already been through so much, so we can only imagine how she is feeling right now. Please keep McKayla and her family in your thoughts and prayers!
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.