Grant Wahl, a highly revered soccer journalist, suddenly died last week while covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar from a rupture in his aorta, the main blood vessel leading from the heart, his family said in a statement Wednesday.
The big picture: The family said Wahl's cause of death was determined through an autopsy performed by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office after his body was returned to the U.S. on Monday.
- Wahl, 49, was pronounced dead at a hospital after collapsing while covering the final moments of the World Cup quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands on Dec. 9.
What they're saying: Celine Gounder, Wahl's wife and a physician, said he had an undetected and slowly growing expansion and weakening of his ascending aorta that had catastrophically ruptured, which is known as an aneurysm.
- "The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms. No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him," Gounder said.
- "While the world knew Grant as a great journalist, we knew him as a man who approached the world with openness and love. Grant was an incredibly empathetic, dedicated, and loving husband, brother, uncle, and son who was our greatest teammate and fan," she added.
- "His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death."
- Tim Scanlan, Wahl's agent, told the New York Times last week that the journalist had not been feeling well throughout the tournament. Wahl wrote on Dec. 5 that he was struggling to sleep and was experiencing pressure and discomfort in his upper chest that had been diagnosed as bronchitis.
The big picture: Wahl was a longtime journalist at Sports Illustrated, where he wrote the cover story on LeBron James and covered the U.S. men's soccer team.
- He provided coverage of the Qatar World Cup through his own newsletter, detailing human rights abuses and protests at the tournament.
