Grant Wahl’s Wife Remembers Him as World Cup Kicks Off: Would’ve ‘Been in New Zealand Right Now’

The beloved sports journalist died in December while covering the 2022 Men's World Cup in Qatar

For the first time in years, the Women's World Cup is kicking off without beloved sports journalist Grant Wahl.

Wahl died at the age of 49 in December while covering the World Cup in Qatar due to an aortic aneurysm. Now, his wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, is thinking about her late husband as the Women’s World Cup starts without him there.

“@GrantWahl was planning to be in New Zealand right now,” she tweeted Thursday, along with a link to a livestream of the U.S.'s first game against Vietnam.

Wahl, 48, was covering the Argentina versus Netherlands game at the FIFA World Cup on Friday when he was reported to have collapsed during the match. Other journalists at the stadium questioned why there wasn't a defibrillator nearby as responders gave Wahl CPR.

In a statement shared days after his passing, Gounder explained that Wahl's aneurysm was "slowly growing, undetected."

"Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium," she wrote on Wahl's Substack. "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."

Related: Grant Wahl's Wife, Brother Pay Tribute to the Beloved Sportswriter at Memorial: 'Something Worldly About Him'

Immediately after his death, U.S. Soccer released a statement via Twitter and said, "The entire U.S. Soccer family is heartbroken to learn that we have lost Grant Wahl. Fans of soccer and journalism of the highest quality knew we could always count on Grant to deliver insightful and entertaining stories about our game, and its major protagonists: teams, players, coaches and the many personalities that make soccer unlike any sport."

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During a memorial ceremony a few weeks later, Gounder recalled how the two met while studying at Princeton in the 1990s.

"Grant and I were really just kids when we met at Princeton," Gounder said, according to ABC News. "I was 18. He was 21. In many ways, we finished growing up together."

She continued: "He hadn't traveled the world, yet. In fact, he'd only been out of the country twice at that point, both times to Argentina. But as much as I made fun of his provincial palette back in those days, there was something worldly about him, this curiosity he had about the world."

The two married in 2001. In April 2020, Wahl shared a picture of Gounder with their dogs and expressed admiration for her hard work as a medical professional amid the COVID pandemic on her birthday.

"Ours has always been a two-person operation; the income from my job supported what Céline was doing in hers. And we're incredibly fortunate that at a time when I suddenly don't have a job or severance, she's the one who's able to keep us afloat while still contributing so much to society," he wrote at the time. "(It also means we'll have health insurance next month.) Happy birthday, Smiley. I love you."

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