Australian Sally Robbins says her team-mates threatened to throw her overboard after she stopped rowing in the women's eight final.
Robbins slumped in the boat and let her oar dip into the water with about 400m to go as Australia came home last.
"I didn't say anything back because I was stunned myself," Robbins told the Channel Seven television network.
"Fatigue set in and I just couldn't move," she added. "It's a feeling of paralysis where you just hit the wall."
Robbins blamed her collapse on exhaustion after the gruelling first 1600m of the race on the hottest day of the year in Athens.
But Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper criticised Robbins and ran a poll asking readers to vote on whether she had cost the team a medal.