Sean McCann has been selected to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The 21-year-old swimmer is also Madeleine McCann’s younger brother, a link that puts his selection into wider view as the Games begin on Thursday.
McCann is expected to compete in a number of longer-distance freestyle swimming events at Tollcross International Centre. He already has international experience, having represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Tobago in 2023, where he finished fifth in the 400m freestyle.
Loughborough training base
The selection also points to the scale of the work behind his rise. McCann is a Loughborough University student, and he has said he gets up at 4am multiple mornings each week, trains nine times a week in the pool, adds three gym sessions, and puts in over 20 hours of training per week.
McCann said, “I started competitive sport when I was eight, joining Charnwood triathlon club.” He added, “It was here that I discovered my passion for swimming and I joined Loughborough Town swimming club to increase the number of swim sessions I did per week.”
Great Britain and LA
The selection carries a second layer of ambition. McCann said, “I’m aiming to compete at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and also the 2028 Olympics in LA.” That places Glasgow not as an endpoint, but as one stop in a longer push toward Great Britain Olympic contention for Los Angeles.
McCann also said, “At the age of 10, I was selected to swim at City of Leicester and I have since gone on to win multiple county titles as well as becoming regional and national champion in my age group.” His path now runs through the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where swimming will be one of the first tests of how far that training has taken him.
Glasgow pool
The immediate question is how McCann’s freestyle schedule will be shaped once racing begins, because the source material does not set out the exact events he will enter. What is clear is that Scotland has placed a young swimmer, already tested at Tobago and already thinking about LA, into the centre of its Glasgow squad.
