SALT LAKE CITY — Former Olympic skier Bode Miller and his wife said they are “beyond devastated” after their 19-month-old daughter, Emeline, drowned at a friend’s party.
The toddler died after drowning in a pool at a neighbor’s home during a party in California, authorities said, according to Today.com.
The couple shared their reactions in an Instagram post that included a photo of their daughter.
“Our baby girl, Emmy, passed away yesterday,” Miller and his wife, professional beach volleyball player Morgan Beck, wrote together in the post. “Never in a million years did we think we would experience a pain like this. Her love, her light, her spirit will never be forgotten.”
Read the post below.
According to Today.com, paramedics tried to perform CPR on the child but were unable to resuscitate her.
“Our little girl loved life and lived it to it’s fullest every day. Our family respectfully requests privacy during this painful time,” Miller and Beck wrote.
According to People magazine, the couple shared a link to a GoFundMe account for people to help donate to the family, including the Millers, son Nash Skan and Miller’s children from a previous relationship, son Samuel and daughter Neesyn.
Previously, Miller had to deal with the death of his brother, Chelone “Chilly” Miller. He told Access Hollywood in 2013 that he wanted to use his brother’s death to inspire him in the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“I think for one thing, it’s too fresh. Any time you’re gathering emotional energy to channel into something, it has to be fairly contained and it has to be real but it also has to be something you feel confident in unleashing, and I think that’s still pretty fresh,” he explained. “It’s more just a tragedy. I can use it and turn it in some way for inspiration because, like you said, he had wanted to go to the Olympics and he’s just my little brother — I had seen him compete his whole life.”