The following year, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Ilieva helped her squad claim a bronze medal in the same program before her official retirement from the sport.

Ilieva made her senior official debut in 1999, and later competed as part of the Bulgarian women's rhythmic gymnastics team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where she placed seventh in the group all-around tournament with a composite score of 38.432 (19.166 for five clubs and 19.266 for two hoops and three ribbons).

[3] At the 2002 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, Ilieva and her Bulgarian team finished fourth in the same program with a score in 47.050, missing out the medal podium by 350-thousandths of a point.

[4] At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Ilieva competed for the Bulgarian women's rhythmic gymnastics team in the group all-around tournament, after receiving a qualifying berth from the World Championships.

[4] Teaming with Eleonora Kezhova, Zornitsa Marinova, Kristina Rangelova, and twin sisters Galina and Vladislava Tancheva in the competition, Ilieva performed a double routine using five ribbons (23.400) and a combination of three hoops and two balls (25.200) to deliver the Bulgarian squad a bronze-medal score in 48.600.