What we know about the death of Grant Wahl, the journalist who died at the World Cup

Tribute to late journalist Grant Wahl on a jumbotron prior to a World Cup match.
(Image credit: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Grant Wahl, the famed U.S. soccer journalist who collapsed and died at the World Cup in Qatar last week, died of an aortic aneurysm, his wife revealed Wednesday.

"Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium," Dr. Céline Gounder wrote on Wahl's Substack, adding that an autopsy had been performed. "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. His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.