Swimmers like Hannah Miley have been unable to compete because of coronavirus
Competitive swimming faces being a "write-off" in 2020, says Scottish Swimming chief executive Euan Lowe.
With measures to tackle coronavirus being gradually eased after more than two months, indoor swimming remains on hiatus for now.
Lowe says social distancing measures will present "a challenge".
"Pools will not open at the same time and some won't be open at all. It will be a phased return at best," he said in an interview with McLeod Media.
"We might need to increase the width of the lanes to ensure social distancing, so immediately that's half the number of competitive swimmers. We need to crack the problem around changing rooms, too."
This year's Tokyo Olympics has been postponed until 2021 and, as a result, the next World Aquatics Championships have been delayed until 2022.
And Lowe said of his athletes: "The longer it goes on naturally you can expect a dip in performance but they are coping well and will get back to a performance - that's for sure.
"Sadly, inevitably we are looking at writing off any competitive opportunity for the bulk of the year. In that respect it's a write-off, but not a write-off in plenty other things going on."
