Gabriela Georgieva dropped out in the women's 200-meter backstroke series at the Olympic swimming tournament in Paris, BTA reported.
Georgieva swam below her abilities and finished 21st with a time of 2:12.15 minutes, which was not enough to find a place among the top 16 in the discipline.
Gabriela Georgieva's national record is 2:09.95 minutes from the world championships in Doha earlier in the year, where she finished sixth in the event final.
This time, Georgieva swam nearly three seconds below this achievement, with which she ended her participation in Paris.
This was the second start for the Bulgarian in her Olympic debut, as in the first one she also failed in the 100m backstroke series.
So far, Bulgarian swimming has one semi-final in Paris for Lyubomir Epitropov, who finished ninth in the 200m breaststroke.
Friday sees the start of the last Bulgarian participant in swimming at the Games, Yosif Miladinov, who will compete in the 100-meter butterfly, the discipline in which he will swim the final in Tokyo 2020.
Georgieva broke down in tears in her interview after her performance ended.
“I am not satisfied. You can do more, even though as much as I tell myself I'm fine, I clearly am not. There's a reason I'm not well, I don't want to comment on what it is. I leave Paris with mixed emotions, Georgieva told BNT through tears.
Gabriela finished seventh in her heat in the 200m backstroke and was eighth in the 100m. Her disappointment was visible in the speeches after the two swims.