Grant Wahl’s wife: Celine Gounders’ remarkable career
Grant Wahl, a revered United States sports journalist, passed away while reporting the World Cup quarter-final match between the Netherlands and Argentina. Sky Sports reports that people near him saw him fall back on his seat. Despite a rapid response from emergency services, Wahl died. Authorities haven’t released an official cause of death.
In response to a U.S. Soccer tweet announcing Grant Wahl’s death, his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, tweeted: “I am so thankful for the support of my husband @GrantWahl’s soccer family & of so many friends who have reached out tonight. I’m in complete shock.”
Celine Gounder married Wahl in 2002 after proposing to him in April 2000
Celine Gounder and Grant Wahl met at Princeton University in the mid-90s. Wahl, studying politics, was one year ahead of Celine, who graduated with a degree in molecular biology in 1997. During an appearance on the That’s What She Said podcast, Wahl talked about the pair’s days at Princeton:
“We were in the same eating club, which is a Princeton thing. It’s basically a co-ed sorority/fraternity-type situation where you eat your meals there. So we got to know each other there. And we did have common interests in current events and movies and food.”
Gounder proposed to Wahl on 22nd April 2000 in New York City, according to an Instagram post uploaded by Grant in June 2020. The couple married in 2001. Due to their demanding careers, Celine and Wahl decided against having children.
The pair raised two dogs – Coco and Zizou, named after legendary French footballer Zinedine Zidane. In December 2020, Grant wrote on Instagram that Zizou had stopped breathing one morning. Wahl praised Celine for performing CPR on Zizou as they rushed the pooch to the hospital. Thankfully, Zizou survived the scary episode.
Wahl was no stranger to lavishing praise on his wife. On 23rd April 2020, Grant celebrated Celine’s birthday by applauding her humanitarian work in Africa and the United States. Grant wrote:
“Ours has always been a two-person operation; the income from my job supported what Celine 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 contributing so much to society.”
On 21st October 2022, Grant, Celine, and the dogs went for a night out in New York City. “Night out with @celinegounder in NYC,” Grant captioned a photo of Celine with the dogs.
Gounder served in President Biden’s coronavirus advisory board
According to Gounders’ Linkedin page, she studied at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Harvard medical school after graduating from Princeton. She was an expert in public health, epidemiology, and infectious diseases.
In 2017, Celine was featured in People’s 25 Women Changing the World. The magazine feted Celine for her selfless humanitarian work worldwide. Gounder said:
“I am a physician. I practice in internal medicine as well as infectious diseases: I treat patients for the whole gamut of medical issues they can have as well as treating patients who have HIV, hepatitis, and so on. More recently, I pivoted to medical journalism.”
Gounder is the senior fellow & editor-at-large for public health at Kaiser Health News and is a part-time medical news contributor at CBS News. She is also a clinical associate Professor of Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital Center.
Celine’s extensive knowledge of infectious diseases landed her a spot on President Biden’s coronavirus advisory board. During an interview with The New York Times, Gounder said she would advise the President to fix racial inequities in the system. Celine said:
“Race disparities are definitely going to be a through line for all the plans – for example, with respect to testing, making sure that you are locating testing facilities in communities of color.”
Gounder has dedicated her career to serving the vulnerable in society; her efforts have earned her global admiration. Wahl often celebrated Celine’s career moves on social media. On 3rd September 2022, Grant wrote alongside a photo of Celine:
“Congrats to the Doc @celinegounder on: 1. Becoming a contributor at CBS News, where you can see her on the CBS morning & evening news and streaming.”
