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.

They’d still be safe and not wander off/ be abducted though wouldn’t they.
Id take a parent with a tablet over one that leaves babies unattended whilst they go out drinking, every single time.
The two are hardly comparable, ones highly illegal in this country for a start.

100% agree with this. I hope that side of the story calms down and we focus on him and his achievements. I have emailed 3 organisations who have done this and complained. I don't know if it will do any good of course, but I feel better!

I did read it in the way you meant it myself, but then wondered if I'd got it wrong. Agree, panning to and photographing the parents is very much a choice.

He rarely speaks about that day, he mentions it in his autobiography and he even says he tries not to think about it. It was only by sheer luck and the bravery of others that he and Jamie survived. It is said they hid under a desk as they were on their way to the school gym.

It's the media who can't help themselves and love reminding everyone at every opportunity that he survived the Dunblane massacre. Just like they will to Sean McCann, they'll keep calling him missing Madeleine's brother, he could have multiple gold medals at the Olympics, he could be a one of the most decorated athletes and the media will still call him missing Madeleine's brother.

Once we left DD1 as a baby (in 2006) fast asleep in the travel cot in the hotel room while we dashed downstairs for a hastily eaten meal after an absolutely nightmarish seven hour car journey. Nothing happened, she was still fast asleep when we returned and during the meal one of us kept going back (quite a way as it was a fairly big hotel) and hovering outside the door to see if we could hear anything. Nowadays in the same situation we'd have just stopped somewhere en route, but it wasn't so easy then before satnav in an unfamiliar place, the first time we'd driven that far with DD1, and I think we were just a bit strung out and also inexperienced parents. Someone taking her seemed a very remote possibility, my fear was that she would wake up and be upset or disturb other guests. She was always a good sleeper at that age once she went down for the night so I was also fairly confident she would be asleep for the fastest consumed meal in history. And it was fine, but it might not have been.

It's nasty.

Who are the ramsay s

Gordon Ramsay's family.

Why on earth would he have a problem with it?

It was sarcasm. I was suggesting he is very pleased with his association with his new family.

That's not sarcasm though

I wasn’t aware that what the McCanns did was “highly illegal” in this country but in any case my point was parenting is not just about keeping your kids within eye and earshot at all times, it’s about the support, love and care you give a child over many years. I mean, when I was a kid my parents left me in a holiday bungalow on my own at night and drove miles out to dinner, never came back to check on me once. There were other similar occasions I could mention. A poor decision on their part but I don’t consider them to be terrible parents overall. I certainly have long ago forgiven them for these lapses in responsibility and don’t understand why the general public is so unforgiving towards the McCanns. What did they ever do to you?

It sounds like this is giving you an opportunity to enjoy feeling now much better a parent you are, by talking about how you wouldn't have done what they did. You could perhaps just keep that as a private thought. It's highly likely that in other ways, you could be a bad parent. Many of us are in one way or another.

I had children of a similar age and all I remember about it is feeling utterly sick. What the parents should or shouldn't have done paled into insignificance compared to imagining possible scenarios and the terror they must have felt when they found she was missing. It was just so awful and sad to think about. I think most people I knew felt much like that. Only a few online seem to have made a hobby out of having opinions on it all for years and years afterwards, or playing detective, and I think they are pretty pathetic.

Edited to put my swimming message as the most recent.

The conversations about Kate and Gerry are a bit boring, all these years later. Yes, we all know that what they did wasn't the best idea, but it happened, a very long time ago, and that's that, really.

I don't follow swimming, but he sounds good! Wonder if he will get good enough to represent Britain at the Olympics? Also would be interesting to know, from people who do follow swimming, how his times etc. compare to other young swimmers in other countries.

Next year it'll be 20 years, unbelievably. I suspect there will be some press activity around the anniversary.

He’s okay but British Swimming don’t tend to put people in events to make up a team.
They set ridiculously fast internal qualifying times and it’s often quite galling to see other countries represented in those events who are far slower.

Kate says in her book that they didn't use it as thought their checking method was superior.

Zola Budd ran for England because South African athletes were banned from the Olympics at the time

This.

Each year Aquatics GB run an event in London at Easter which is the top
swimmers overall in Britain and serves as trials for the summer internationals .

He always features heavily and achieves well but there’s never much movement of swimmers coming through to Olympic level in GB. The same swimmers have been running for years and I only a few get added a long the way.

Swimming is a sport with fine margins. Last weeks summer British champs featured swimmers who have competed at Olympics and haven’t made internationals this summer.

It is a great opportunity though for the next wave coming through to compete alongside the big names in swimming .

Other countries fund and select differently and take far more swimmers than we do.

UK Athletics is as bad as British Swimming for this too. There is a javelin thrower who has not been picked for the Europeans despite being in a better position than others who were selected for other events.
Hopefully Michael Allison will get his opportunity