Where swimmers would usually glide through the water in laps up and down a 50 metre pool, there is an empty basin.
The Canberra International Sports and Aquatic Centre looks a different place since it closed temporarily under national restrictions aiming to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Sean Hodges, chief operating officer of the centre's operator Viva Leisure, said upgrade works had revealed the pool's true dimensions.
"When you see it empty, it really blows your mind on how big it actually is," he said.
"It's a bit of an eerie look to it actually, it's not something you see every day."
The pool at Bruce has been drained of 2.4 million litres of water as its operators use the shutdown to bring forward maintenance work.
At 2000 cubic metres in volume, and 1.8 metres in depth at its deepest point, it's busy with tradespeople scrubbing and repainting. They've ripped up the vinyl layering and replaced the shell of the pool.
As the works continue, it will stay closed despite the ACT government allowing commercial pools to reopen last weekend.
Filled with water, the pool has 10 lanes, or double this if it's divided into two 25 metre sections.
The maintenance works had been due to take place later, but COVID-19 restrictions brought a change of plan for the 16-year-old facility.
"We shut down and we knew pretty early on there was going to be no return to business in the immediate future, so we made the decision to make the best of a bad time and do some much-needed upgrade works to a number of our facilities," Mr Hodges said.
"So the advantage I guess, the one positive out of all of this is generally these sort of works would have to happen and you'd have to close your facility down to the public.
"To be able to do it while we're being forced to close has been one of the positives in what's been a pretty poor period of time."
The maintenance works at CISAC - most of which are happening at the pool - will cost more than a million dollars.
Mr Hodges said its operators aim to reopen the pool in June.
They're reopening the centre's hydrotherapy pool on Wednesday. Viva Leisure is also working to reopen the pool it operates at ANU next week.
Restrictions on the number of people able to swim at one time will apply.
"Members will be able to call up and the public will be able to call up and book a swim," Mr Hodges said.
"The ability to have people to be able to come and swim in a safe environment is pretty exciting for us."
