McKayla Maroney Remembers Her Dad on Second Anniversary of His Death

Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney‘s father, Mike Maroney, passed away in January 2019. Two years later, she is providing updates about the grieving process while looking back on his life. She explained that the flashbacks are overwhelmingly sad.

“Been two years since my dad passed away,” Maroney wrote on her Instagram Stories. “I know he’s at peace. I have zero doubt that he’s doing good work up in the ethers. I can feel that his spirit has shifted into something much more powerful, divine, and blissful than he was here, and that makes me so happy for him.” She continued and explained that there some lingering effects from his death.

“But getting flashbacks from the day he passed, and after is very real, and overwhelmingly sad,” she explained. “I could literally cry an ocean. He was an incredible father, I miss him. But I know and feel that he’s a big angel watching over my whole family now. The grief will just continue to be a process.”

Maroney previously provided information about her father’s cause of death with a series of videos on Instagram. She sat down in front of the camera in March 2020 and revealed that Mike had died during opioid detox. This information had not come to light previously, but Maroney took the time to inform others about the situation.

“In short, my dad, we found out he was addicted to pain pills,” Maroney said in her videos. “I didn’t know this. He went to a hotel randomly one day and was like ‘I’m going to quit.’ And we were like ‘What? What?’ His best friend took him, and he died trying to detox, quit from pain pills. He could have just gone to a rehab place and done it right. He didn’t and he passed away.”

When news surfaced that Mike had passed away at the age of 59, Maroney was in the midst of an extended absence from social media. She resurfaced and posted several tributes to her father, talking about the impact that he made on her life. She also discussed coming forward as one of the Olympians to accuse former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse.

“Missed u guys… last few years a lots happened [with] the [Me Too] movement, and losing my dad very unexpectedly,” Maroney wrote in 2019. “I’ll definitely talk about it more, but for now I’ll just say that even on the worst days, i knew i had so much to be thankful for. i have the most supportive family, and friends, and u guys are part of that. blessed to have u, and happy to be back.”