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Bode Miller and Morgan Beck open up about daughter's drowning

Bode Miller and Morgan Beck Miller's 19-month-old daughter died in June after she fell into a neighbors pool.
Credit: Instagram
Bode Miller shared this photo on Instagram after his daughter's drowning death in June.

Former Olympic skier Bode Miller and his wife, Morgan Beck Miller, have a warning for other parents about how quickly tragedy can strike.

The couple spoke to TODAY's Savannah Guthrie in their first interview since their 19-month-old daughter Emeline drowned after she fell into a neighbors pool in June.

"It's unbelievable quick and unbelievable sneaky," Bode Miller said in a preview clip released by TODAY. "You'd think it'd be some weird circumstance or some strange thing. And it's not. It just happens in the blink of an eye."

While her family was nearby, the 19-month-old had slipped through a back door and was discovered in the pool a short time later, according to TODAY. The Orange County Fire Department told People at the time that Emeline had been "missing for just a short amount of time."

“A child under 30 pounds can drown in 30 seconds,” Morgan Beck Miller described to TODAY. “And I just keep counting to 30 in my head. That was all I needed.”

Beck Miller urged parents that when they go to someone else's home to survey the area and see if it's a safe place for your child to be.

TODAY's Savannah Guthrie explained Friday that the couple is speaking out because in the "depths of their grief" and they're doing it because they want to get the word out to other parents.

She added that the conversation she had with the couple changed her as well and her thinking about swimming and drowning safety.

"They are an example of it could happen to anyone and we need to change our thinking around this," Guthrie said.

The full conversation with Bode Miller and Morgan Beck Miller airs Monday on TODAY.

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