The Greek federation argued that Darby was ineligible because she failed to meet the full requirements of the five-event discipline, when she qualified for the games by winning the Asian & Oceanian Championships in Tokyo, Japan (four of the five disciplines were contested except for equestrian show jumping, because of an outbreak of equine influenza).

[2][3] In the early rounds of the competition, Darby displayed a poor performance by finishing last out of thirty-six athletes in the air pistol shooting event (AP40), with a score of 184 points.

Darby eventually placed thirty-first in one-touch épée fencing, but dropped to thirty-fifth position, when she stopped for up to 10 seconds halfway through the 200 m freestyle swimming race, halted by a pair of malfunctioned googles.

[4] Darby quickly moved to the top of the rankings, when she finished seventh in the show jumping segment, knocking off a total of 28 obstacle and time penalties.

In the end, Darby finished the event with cross-country running in thirty-fifth place, for a total score of 4,816 points.