French favourite gymnast Melanie de Jesus dos Santos crashes out of Paris Games
The popular gymnast, one of the faces of the Games, was reduced to tears after struggling mightily despite the vocal support of the home crowd in her second - and what she has suggested will be her last - Olympics.
"I'm disappointed in myself. I tried to be strong, but I didn't succeed," a teary de Jesus dos Santos told Eurosport.
"My mental strength did not hold up. I put everything in place to be strong today, but I didn't succeed. I missed my Olympics.
"I feel like I've worked so hard for nothing. I gave everything for two years and today it didn't work. There is nothing positive today.
"I think these were my last Games and I didn't succeed in enjoying them. I didn't have fun. But I'm happy to see the crowd there for us, it warms my heart."
Starting on uneven bars, de Jesus dos Santos fell early in her routine and while she recovered to hit the dismount, the early misstep was just the beginning.
A shaky performance on balance beam followed, including a moment when she had to grab the apparatus to keep from falling off.
Things did not improve on the floor exercise when she failed to land a double flip in the stretched position, her knees and hands hitting the mat, and she looked dejected after finishing up on vault.
Hopes were high for de Jesus dos Santos, a four-time European champion who moved to Houston more than two years ago to train at Simone Biles' gymnastics club headed up by Cecile and Laurent Landi.
But it was not to be for her and the France squad, who also underperformed and could be seen consoling each other after missing out on Tuesday's team final competition.
No member of the French team will compete again after qualifying wraps up on Sunday.
"We didn't enter the competition at the level we should have been. We didn't fight hard enough," Ming van Eijken told reporters.
"At the end we told ourselves that we had to remain positive despite what happened," she said.
"Of course this is a difficult situation because we did not perform how we would have liked. We are still super proud of having gone to the Olympics."