Rob Downey
Cork senior hurler and Glen Rovers clubman. A Ballyvolane native, he made his Cork senior debut in 2019 and captained the county through the 2025 season, leading them to Munster and National League titles and an All-Ireland final. He won an All-Star at centre-back and a Fitzgibbon Cup with UCC in 2020.
Mick McCormack
Head coach at Dolphin Swimming Club in Cork, where he runs the full programme from learn-to-swim through to senior
international level and leads the Munster regional performance pathway squad. Under his coaching, Dolphin have been the overall top-scoring club at the Irish Nationals for three years running. He is also a PE and English teacher.
Andrew Bree
Two-time Olympic swimmer, competing in the breaststroke at Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008, where he reached the 200m semi-finals and twice lowered his own Irish record. From Helen’s Bay, Co. Down, he was the first Northern Irish swimmer
to medal at the European Short Course Championships (silver, 200m breaststroke, Dublin 2003) and represented Northern Ireland at four Commonwealth Games. He now works in coaching, swimming commentary and speaking, and has spoken publicly about his own experience of depression and about phones, social media and sedentary lifestyles among teenagers.
Nadine Seward
Founder of SafeSite Solution, which uses virtual reality to train construction workers in health and safety. Nadine grew up playing a range of sports before settling on soccer at 14, and has played in the Women’s National League ever since — most recently with Cork City FC, following a spell with DLR Waves. Sport taught her discipline, teamwork and the ability to take a knock and get back up, all of which now feed into building and growing her own business. On the webinar she will talk about what sport did for her as a teenager, and why she believes every child should be playing sport.
