Sportswriter Grant Wahl has died suddenly while covering the World Cup in Qatar, just a few weeks after running afoul of local authorities for defying their crackdown on LGBTQ+ fans.
The United States Soccer Federation confirmed his death in a statement late Friday, praising the 49-year-old veteran journalist for his “insightful and entertaining stories” about the sport.
His wife, Celine Gounder, tweeted that she was “in complete shock.”
“I am so thankful for the support of my husband Grant Wahl’s soccer family & of so many friends who've reached out tonight,” she wrote.
His brother, meanwhile, took to social media to question whether foul play was involved, although there was no immediate indication of that from official sources.
Wahl wrote on his Substack earlier in the week that he was not feeling well.
“My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort,” he wrote Monday.
“I didn’t have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I’m already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.”
Wahl famously took a stand last month for LGBTQ+ rights in a country that forbids same-sex relations. After wearing a rainbow T-shirt to the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, he said, he was accosted by security guards who demanded he remove it. He refused, he said, and was briefly detained, though he was released after tweeting about the ordeal.
“One security guard told me that my shirt was ‘political’ and not allowed,” he wrote on his Substack. “Another continually refused to give me back my phone. Another guard yelled at me as he stood above me—I was sitting on a chair by now—that I had to remove my shirt.”
He said one of the security guards later told him “they were just trying to protect me from fans inside who could harm me for wearing the shirt.”
“But the entire episode left me wondering: What’s it like for ordinary Qataris who might wear a rainbow shirt when the world isn’t watching here? What’s that like?” he wrote.
U.S. Soccer appeared to hint at the Nov. 21 incident in their statement paying tribute to him. In addition to “elevating” the sport with his “brilliant writing,” the soccer federation said, “Grant’s belief in the power of the game to advance human rights was, and will remain, an inspiration to all.”