Angels' Wade Meckler is Half of an Intriguing Sports Power Couple

In a typical February, Angels outfielder Wade Meckler and his wife, Grace Fetherstonhaugh, will both be in Arizona.

Grace, a runner, will go to Flagstaff for altitude training with her fellow Canadian Olympic hopefuls. Meckler, of course, will be in spring training with the Angels in Tempe. Two professional athletes, husband and wife, separated only by about 150 miles sounds almost ideal — save for the fact that they're working every day.

"Last year, he came up to visit me before he went down, and I was able to sneak down a couple times to see him," Fetherstonhaugh said in an interview with Angels on SI. "I can’t do that too much, which is tricky because you’re so close."

The couple met in college at Oregon State. They married last November. When Meckler had his contract selected from Double-A Rocket City in May, they joined a rare groups of athletic power couples in MLB.

Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson's wife, Mallory, is a professional soccer player. Her teammate, Julia Grosso, is engaged to Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña. No other active major leaguers are known to be married to active professional athletes.

One of the reasons it's rare is because the window for men and women to compete as elite athletes is narrow. Fetherstonhaugh, a native of British Columbia, is aware.

In 2024, the year she graduated from Oregon State, Fetherstonhaugh dealt with an injury for the first time and finished third at the Canadian nationals in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She fell one spot short of a berth on the national Olympic team that competed in Paris.

"At first it was upsetting, then definitely motivating to be that close," she said.

In 2025, Fetherstonhaugh qualified for the World Championships in Japan. She finished eighth in her heat. Next year, the World Championships will be held in China in September. That, the Pan-American Games, and the North America/Central American Championships, will be important for 2028 Olympic qualifying.

To compete in Los Angeles for Team Canada would be almost too perfect for her family in New Westminster, B.C. and Meckler's family in Southern California.

Fetherstonhaugh said the two will train together in the offseason, at a gym near their home in Washington state, "but the workouts are very different." So it will be again in spring training, when Fetherstonhaugh trains at altitude and Meckler reports to the Angels' camp in Tempe.

"My shortest rep is 200 meters," she said. "His longest, at the gym if he’s doing sprints, is like 30 meters."

Meckler, 26, is enjoying a career renaissance with the Angels. Through Friday he had a .295 batting average and a .370 OBP. Major league players might not be OK'd to participate in the 2028 Olympics. Even if they are, Meckler will need to keep this up for another couple years to be considered for Team USA.

If he isn't cleared to participate in the Los Angeles Games, Meckler wouldn't mind if MLB gives their players a week off anyway. It might just be the most important week of his wife's career.

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