Heather O’Reilly thinks about Grant Wahl often.
Now an analyst for Fox Sports, O’Reilly played for the United States women’s national soccer team, with whom she won three Olympic gold medals and a FIFA Women’s World Cup. She and Wahl were friends, and that relationship only got better when she transitioned over into the broadcasting side of things.
Recently, O’Reilly expressed how much she missed Wahl, and sent her thoughts to his wife, Dr. Céline Gounder.
Missing Grant Wahl a lot right now. Thinking of you @celinegounder
— Heather O'Reilly (@HeatherOReilly) May 20, 2023
It’s been over seven months since the soccer world was shaken by the untimely passing of the American journalist, who collapsed during the Argentina-Netherlands quarterfinal matchup at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and died of an aortic aneurysm.
Wahl has been recognized for his profound impact on the sports media landscape during his time at Sports Illustrated and beyond, as well as his incredible impact on soccer and how the sport was perceived in the United States and abroad. Many have paid tribute to the late Wahl, including Universal Television/WBD Television series Ted Lasso (which airs on Apple TV+), as well as Major League Soccer, US Soccer and the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
During the latest episode of the Awful Announcing podcast, which premieres Friday, O’Reilly became the latest to recognize Wahl and the profound impact that he had. She said he not only changed the place of soccer in America, but also changed how the country perceived the women’s game.
“He was always so gracious with his time,” O’Reilly told Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes. “We worked together briefly at Fox and were with each other in Paris (for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France in 2019). Grant really was the name of soccer journalism, not just women’s soccer, but also men’s soccer.”
“I remembered his name for the longest time because he wrote a Sports Illustrated article on Mia Hamm, like early days when she was playing. And I remember seeing his name on the front of Sports Illustrated. So, he was always this figure that represented quality journalism. He knew what he was talking about. He wasn’t afraid to ask the hard questions. Everybody knew that. Not in a bad or nefarious way. But just kind of you knew this wasn’t going to be a fluff piece. This was going to be something of substance. But he did it in classy ways.”
O’Reilly said that Wahl had a reputation for making sure that he showed up.
“He was just always there,” she added. “You just always saw him there.”
O’Reilly was asked by FIFA to go to Qatar in 2022. She explained her hesitancy, considering a lot of topics that were surrounding the tournament in terms of human rights issues and building stadiums. And there were a lot of factors at play, especially with her having two young kids at home, so schedule-wise, it was going to be a difficult decision.
She knew Wahl was over there and decided to shoot Wahl an email which she estimates was sent about three days prior to his untimely death.
“We’re going back on email and I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m kind of hemming and hawing about going over, how have you found the tournament?’ And he’s just like, ‘Make your own decision however you want to, but I’ve had a really positive experience. Here’s what’s been good. Here are some question marks,'” O’Reilly recalled. “And he basically encouraged me to go. And then he died. It was wild.”
“He, I think, meant a lot to the sport more than I think that we all know because he was an information passer,” she said. “And I don’t think that you know sometimes like, ‘OK, that article really hit home for me.’ Like, say this Mia [Hamm] article. That probably inspired me so deeply as a young person. And that wouldn’t have happened if that wasn’t for Grant Wahl being interested in that story as well and committing to his craft to make sure that story was told.”
Listen to O’Reilly’s full appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast Friday, July 21.
