Sometimes the greatest victories in sport are not measured by the height of where you stand on the podium, but by the distance between where you started and where you finished.

At the 2026 Commonwealth Games this weekend, Scottish swimmer Sean McCann finished last in the 400-meter freestyle final.

Sean is the younger brother of Madeleine McCann.

If you remember, Madeleine was the three-year-old British girl who disappeared while on a family vacation in Portugal on May 3, 2007.

For nearly two decades, the McCann family has lived with unimaginable loss.

Almost always, sport is measured by outcomes.

First place.

Winning the championship.

Standing on the podium.

But sport becomes something sacred when it is measured by something deeper.

Rising after you have fallen.

Beating the odds.

Giving everything you have, not in comparison to other athletes, but in comparison to your circumstances.

Refusing to wallow in pain.

Refusing to stand still.

Choosing to keep moving forward, even when your version of forward is not recognizable to anyone else.

Sometimes showing up is the victory.

Sometimes giving the people who love you a reason to smile is the championship.

Sometimes the greatest thing sport does is say to sorrow:

Move over.

Joy is here to exist beside you.

That is the best part of sport.