The family of Madeleine McCann looked on with pride today as her younger brother Sean made a major step towards the Olympics.
Sean McCann, 21, qualified for the 400m freestyle final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
With parents Kate and Gerry in the stands, Sean finished fourth in a fast heat in a time of three minutes 52.65 seconds.
He will now take part in the final this evening as well as compete in the 800m and 1500m races at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre.
Sean, who has been in the pool since he was eight, said he was ‘buzzing’ after clinching a spot in the final.
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He added: ‘It wasn’t really an expectation coming in given how strong the field was but delighted to see I have made it.’
Sean hopes to represent Scotland in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
‘Hopefully, a couple more years work I will be in the mix for the Olympics,’ he said.
The chemical engineering student at Loughborough University was just two years old when his sister disappeared in May 2007.
Kate and Gerry left Madeleine and her then two-year-old twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, to go eat at a nearby restaurant in Praia da Luz, a resort town along the Portuguese coast of Algarve.
Madeleine’s father checked on the children at about 9pm to find them all there – when his wife checked just an hour later, Madeleine was gone.
It became one of the world’s most high-profile missing-person cases, with the girl’s bright blue-green eyes and blonde bob haircut printed across countless newspaper front pages and posters.
Sean, who has never spoken with the media about his sister, said that the attention around the disappearance has long kept him in the spotlight.
‘I wouldn’t say I felt the pressure, but certainly I was nervous with so many people watching and I wanted to do not only not well for myself, but also Team Scotland as well,’ he said.
‘I was definitely nervous, but glad I could produce a decent swim.’
While Sean is from Rothley, five miles north of Leicester, his father was born in Glasgow, so he qualified for Scotland.
‘I’ve got lots of family up in Glasgow so that makes it even more special,’ he told the Loughborough University website.
‘I was there in 2014, watching the Commonwealth Games as a kid, so to make it now, 12 years later, is really a full-circle moment.’
Kate and Gerry are regular sights in poolside stands for their son, who used to drive Sean to sessions at Braunstone Leisure Centre near Rothley.
Sean is no stranger to a swimming tournament – he won bronze in the 800m freestyle at the 2026 Aquatics GB Championships in eight minutes and 0.45sec.
At the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago, he finished fifth in the 400m freestyle event.
That same year, he represented Team GB in open-water swimming, competing at the 2023 European Junior Championships in Corfu.
Team-mate Charlie Hutchison told the Daily Mail that Sean is a ‘workhouse’.
‘We do some disgusting training sessions, but he is never one to complain or moan. He just gets on with it,’ he said.
‘This is definitely something he has worked on when he didn’t have as many people to race against and then moving to such a competitive group. Just not being demoralised and pushing forward.’
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