Sjödin ends his international championship career where it began 15 years ago - at the European Championships in Budapest.
He had hopes of a final place, but the 34-year-old's 2.02.30 was just over four seconds above the personal record and he missed the semifinals by 1.6 seconds.
- This was not what I had trained for.
I felt when I was going to go breaststroke (third length) that there was no power to hang on to the guys.
It turned out that I ended up in no man's land and then I could not pick it up in the freestyle, says Sjödin.
"Something went wrong"
The preparations for his last championship have felt good.
- It does not really reflect the result I had today so I have to analyze what went wrong.
It was harmony before, I have trained hard, but something went wrong, he says.
Sjödin, who swam two World Cup finals in the distance, was instead pleased with teammate Samuel Törnqvist who set a personal record with almost 1.5 seconds and recorded 2.00.68.
Törnqvist went on to the semifinals with the last time.