The event, which offered fans - including young children - the chance to work out alongside elite athletes on Scottish Swimming's performance squad, was "Zoom-bombed", the organisation said in a statement.

According to the Scottish Sun, the around 300 participants in the session, held during the COVID-19 lockdown, were shown images of child abuse and heard racial slurs.

The workout was shut down immediately and Scottish Swimming has reported the incident to police and their cyber crime unit.

"Scottish Swimming sincerely apologises for the incident that happened this morning (Tuesday 14 April) during an organised Zoom event, where the aquatics community were invited to work out alongside our performance athletes," the statement said.

"At the end of last week we shared information about the workout across our social media platforms, asking those interested in participating to log into a link that was shared publicly this morning. 

"Unfortunately the link was ‘Zoom-bombed’ with disturbing content shared with circa 300 people that had signed in to the event. 

"We apologise to everyone involved and deeply regret the outcome of today’s event."

Double Olympic medallist and three-time world champion Duncan Scott, among the athletes who took part in the workout, said he was "in disgust".

"Our open invite WOD cancelled due to a sick individual," the reigning Commonwealth Games 100 metres freestyle champion added in a post on Twitter.

"I am sorry for what everyone and more importantly what the kids that were apart of the WOD had to see."