Sean McCann, swimmer

[TheAverageJoanne]

I noticed the swimmer Sean McCann is being described in every news story as Madeleine McCann's brother. AIBU to think this is unfair to the guy who's trained, qualified and got into the final? It feels very unfair.

I don't follow tennis.

The press are pathetic and nasty. They need more censorship. He is himself and should be known for his own achievements.

Yep. And it's not as if the Internet suffers from a shortage of places to discuss the McCann parents behaviour.

I agree with various pp that it's inevitable he's going to be referred to as brother of Madeline unless and until he becomes so successful that his medals become the story. But people can still give over about the whys and wherefores on this one specific thread and have those discussions somewhere else instead.

I follow tennis, and I do - but only dimly, now it has been raised again - remember he was connected.

Mostly he's just Andy Murray, more connected to Wimbledon than Dunblane in my mind. Actually, I do also tend to connect his mum's face to Andy's name a lot!

Agree.

Let's not pick a happy moment to shreds.

Unfortunately, his sister's story is still larger than his. I honestly hope they get some closure on this.

It doesn’t though. It’s the same for the Olympics, Football, Rugby etc. You can compete for either the country you were born in or the country/countries of your parents. It’s been the same for a very long time.

Yeah it's just the normal workings of international sport. Most of the time you can qualify through your own birthplace, residence for a set number of years, birthplace of a parent and in some sports a grandparent. Sean is by no means the only member of the Scottish team to have been born and live elsewhere and qualify for Scotland through a parent. Was the same on their recent world cup team too. McTominey is from Lancashire.

Totally agree. We were discussing that very thing.

Of course they are. As would any other parents be. Why should they not be proud of their son? What a fantastic achievement to make it to the Commonwealth games. Whatever happened to his sister and whatever we might think of how the McCanns and their friends behaved at the time has no bearing on Sean's achievements.

This 💯

And this 💯

The thing is even if he’d changed his name, it will always come up when his parents watch him compete etc. He was a very young child now having to live in the shadow of his murdered sister and that was clearly nothing to do with him. I feel sorry for him that his achievements will be associated with an extremely traumatic event for his family. The media should pipe down and let him be.

"The media" will do whatever they want to in order to get the clicks.

He is too young to even remember Madelieine.

I don’t know anyone who did, ever.

I agree with you, except that I don’t think the norms haven’t really changed much since 2009…. 1979, maybe, but not 2009. That’s irrelevant though really.

100% agree with this, ^

It’s wild to me now!

But at the time that was the norm in these holiday centres for the middle classes.

And just because you wouldn’t have done it back then doesn’t mean a large percentage of the parents on this type of holiday don’t or wouldn’t.

It was she main selling point.

kids were in crèche (open 8-6) whilst parents sailed including their high tea in crèche. They were put to bed, parents went to the restaurant and they were “supervised” through baby listening.

And yet, she has completely dominated his life, and always will. Not her fault of course, but he will always be 'Madeline McCann's brother.'

I was almost an adult at the time and working class and I can tell you the feeling where I'm from was, if they weren't doctors the authorities would have taken the twins for that behaviour. And honestly that probably is the case, at the very least they'd have been removed pending investigation

Yes, I remember a lot of anger and disgust at the time. Many of us parents of young children who wouldn't have taken such risks.

Yes, I agree. Sean is a very good swimmer and personality in his own right. His name should not be qualified as 'Madeleine McCann's brother'. Let's be honest, he was so young at the time he probably doesn't even remember her!

It was normal at Butlins holiday camps as well as many family hotels to have a baby listening service. If the telephonists heard a baby cry they would put out a tannoy message for "Parents in chalet 32 please return to your chalet."'

They had it in the 90s at a well known Scottish hotel that we visited regularly. Not that far in the past.

Yeah, name changing would achieve precisely fuck all. The connection would still be there and known about, and a name change if anything would give people even more to speculate about.

As the turn this thread has taken shows, people either can't or won't separate him out from the actions of his parents.