The commentator of CBS Sports, recently treated for bronchitis, collapsed while he commented on the quarter-final between Argentina and the Netherlands.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Grant Wahl, a very well-known American sports journalist, who had been talked about after his detention in Qatar for carrying an rainbow t-shirt, died suddenly on Friday December 9 in Doha, announced his wife And the American Football Federation. The 48 -year -old football specialist worked for the famous Sports Illustrated Review before joining the CBS Sports channel in 2021.
He provided the coverage of the quarter-final between Argentina and the Netherlands, he collapsed in the press gallery, according to the American radio NPR. Medical staff practiced first aid actions before winning on a stretcher. According to the American daily The Wall Street Journal, Grant Wahl would have succumbed to cardiac discomfort.
The spokesperson for the US State Department, Ned Price, tweeted soon after: “We are deeply saddened to learn the death of Grant Wahl”, adding that the American authorities were “in close communication” with his family. “We are in contact with senior Qataris officials to ensure that the wishes of his family are granted as quickly as possible,” added Mr. Price.
“My body ends up letting go”
The journalist had explained a few days ago to the subscribers of his newsletter that he went to a clinic in the media center in Qatar where” they said that I probably had bronchitis “. “My body ends up letting go. Three weeks with little sleep, a lot of stress and work can have this effect on you (…) I was able to feel the top of my chest to support a new level of pressure and D ‘discomfort, “he described, specifying having been prescribed antibiotics and an antitssive syrup.
Grant Wahl was married to Doctor Celine Gounder, a recognized specialist in infectious diseases that appeared on television several times during the pandemic of Covid-19, and who said On Twitter that it was” completely in shock “.
“Grant had made football the work of his life and we destroy that his brilliant feather and he are no longer with us,” wrote the American Football Federation (“Soccer”) in a press release, stressing that “The whole football family in the United States (had) with a broken heart” by this death.
a t-shirt supporting LGBT+
On November 21, at the start of the World Cup, Wahl explained on his site that he had been retained by security personnel in Qatar because he wore an rainbow t-en-ciel in the match between the States -Unis and the Pays-de-Gales, to support LGBT+rights, while homosexual relations are criminalized in Qatar.
Grant Wahl had joined the editorial staff of Illustrated in 1996, then number one in the United States of sports publications, to write on male and female football. He stayed there until 2020 and started working at CBS Sports the following year.
In 2011, the famous journalist had presented his candidacy for the head of the International Football Federation (FIFA) to replace Sepp Blatter and denounce the decisions to allocate the Worlds to Russia and Qatar.