BREAKING Police investigating shooting outside of Drake's Bridle Path mansion: source
Toronto police are investigating a shooting that took place outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion early Tuesday morning, a source tells CP24.
Grant Wahl, an American journalist who helped grow the popularity of soccer in the U.S. and reported on some of the biggest stories in the sport, died Saturday while covering a World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands. He was 49.
Wahl fell back in his seat in a section of Lusail Stadium reserved for journalists during extra time of the game, and reporters adjacent to him called for assistance.
Emergency services workers responded very quickly, treated him for 20 or 30 minutes on site and then took him out on a stretcher, said Keir Radnedge, a veteran British sports journalist who was working nearby at the time.
The World Cup organizing committee said he was taken to Doha's Hamad General Hospital, but it did not state a cause of death. "We are in touch with the US Embassy and relevant local authorities to ensure the process of repatriating the body is in accordance with the family's wishes," it said in a statement.
Wahl, who wrote for Sports Illustrated for a decade then started his own website, was a major voice informing an American public of soccer during time of increased interest after the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup. He also brought a critical eye to the organizational bodies of the international sport.
Wahl attempted to run for FIFA president against Sepp Blatter and Mohamed bin Hammam in 2011. He promised to open FIFA to greater transparency and said he contacted 150 countries without winning support for a nomination.
He "really helped put soccer on the mainstream sports map in the States," Radnedge said.
"Grant had a strong moral compass, on where sports should be and how sport ... should help set standards for people," he said. "There was never any doubt that Grant was on the side of the good guys in wanting soccer to make the best of itself."
Wahl was covering his eighth World Cup. He wrote Monday on his website that he had visited a medical clinic while in Qatar.
"My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you," Wahl wrote. "What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort."
Wahl wrote that he tested negative for COVID-19 and sought treatment for his symptoms.
"I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I'm already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno," he wrote.
Wahl tweeted on Wednesday that he had celebrated his birthday that day.
"We could always count on Grant to deliver insightful and entertaining stories about our game, and its major protagonists," the U.S. Soccer Federation said in a statement. "Grant's passion for soccer and commitment to elevating its profile across our sporting landscape played a major role in helping to drive interest in and respect for our beautiful game."
Wahl's wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, tweeted that she was thankful for the support of her husband's "soccer family" and friends who had reached out.
"I'm in complete shock," wrote Gounder, who is an associate professor at New York University School of Medicine, an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital Center and a CBS News contributor.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a tweet that American officials were in touch with Qatari authorities "to see to it that his family's wishes are fulfilled as expeditiously as possible."
Wahl wore a rainbow T-shirt in support of LGBTQ rights to the United States' World Cup opener against Wales on Nov. 21 and wrote that security refused him entry and told him to remove the shirt. Gay and lesbian sex is criminalized in Qatar, a conservative Muslim emirate.
Wahl wrote he was detained for 25 minutes at Ahmed Bin Ali stadium in Al Rayyan, then was let go by a security commander. Wahl said FIFA apologized to him.
Among Wahl's work before he began covering soccer exclusively was a Sports Illustrated cover story about LeBron James in 2002, when James was a junior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High in Akron, Ohio.
"He was always pretty cool to be around. He spent a lot of time in my hometown of Akron," James said in Philadelphia after the Los Angeles Lakers lost in overtime to the 76ers. "Any time his name would come up, I'll always think back to me as a teenager having Grant in our building down at St. V's. It's a tragic loss. It's unfortunate to lose someone as great as he was. I wish his family the best. May he rest in paradise."
A voter at times in FIFA's annual awards, Wahl was among 82 journalists honoured last week by FIFA and the international sports press association AIPS for attending eight or more World Cups.
"His love for football was immense and his reporting will be missed by all who follow the global game," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement.
Wahl graduated from Princeton in 1996 and worked for Sports Illustrated from 1996 to 2021, known primarily for his coverage of soccer and college basketball. He then launched his own website, Futbol with Grant Wahl, and a podcast with Meadowlark Media.
Wahl also worked for Fox Sports from 2012-19 and was hired by CBS Sports in 2021 as an analyst and editorial consultant. Wahl wrote the 2009 book "The Beckham Experiment" after English soccer star David Beckham joined Major League Soccer's LA Galaxy, and the 2018 book "Masters of Modern Soccer."
His death at the World Cup left fellow journalists covering the games stunned.
"You come to a World Cup as a journalist to work, to share the stresses, the pressures but also the enjoyments and the fascination of it -- and to share that with your readers, your listeners, your viewers. That's what Grant was doing, that's what he enjoyed doing. Everybody recognized that enthusiasm in him," Radnedge said.
"So for him to not be with us anymore at such a young age, that's an immense shock."
Toronto police are investigating a shooting that took place outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion early Tuesday morning, a source tells CP24.
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
Sure, she was a royal princess and all. But there’s no way Sleeping Beauty — either before or after her nap — ever had quite the fabulous wardrobe that’s been assembled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Donald Trump returns to the hush money trial Tuesday facing a threat of jail time for additional gag order violations as prosecutors gear up to summon big-name witnesses including porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza's vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife's edge.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.