Inside life of Madeleine McCann’s brother Sean nearly 20 years after tragic disappearance | Other | Sport

The brother of Madeleine McCann is preparing to represent his country at the Commonwealth Games, almost two decades after her tragic disappearance. It has been 19 years since the blue-eyed toddler vanished without a trace during a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal. It quickly became the biggest news story worldwide and the unsolved case remains a source of great intrigue to this day.

Her younger brother, Sean, was in the room when Madeleine went missing. Aged just two at the time of her disappearance, he remembers nothing about the trip or the huge global fallout from the case. In an illustration of just how much has changed since that fateful day, he is now preparing to compete at one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Sean, now aged 21, has developed into an elite swimmer and will represent Scotland in the 400-metre freestyle heats at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

He has received unconditional support from his parents, Kate and Gerry, in spite of the hardships faced by his family in the years since Madeleine’s disappearance.

The couple regularly attend swimming meets to cheer on their son, who has a twin sister named Amelie, and are said to be ‘enthusiastic’ about his sporting endeavours.

Sean hated swimming at first, but he conquered his fear of the pool aged eight before joining a local triathlon club. His talent was immediately evident and he went on to train at Loughborough Town Swimming Club, further honing his skills.

It wasn’t long before he started competing, securing a seventh-placed finish in the under-17 400m freestyle at the British Summer Championships in 2022. A year later, he represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago.

His career went to the next level at Loughborough University, famed for its sporting excellence and for producing countless Olympians including the likes of Adam Peaty and Daniel Waffen.

Sean slashed his 400m freestyle time by a whopping six seconds after only a year, an improvement which saw him promoted to the university’s High Performance squad.

Of course, talent alone isn’t enough to succeed at the highest level of sport. Sean’s relentless drive and unshakeable mentality has played an equal part in his journey to the Commonwealth Games.

Scotland team-mate Charlie Hutchison told the Daily Mail: “He’s a workhorse, just like everybody else in that squad. We do some disgusting training sessions, but he is never one to complain or moan. He just gets on with it.

“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. It’s great to have him on the team as part of Team Scotland.”