Simone Biles ends great Paris Olympics campaign with floor exercise silver after beam fall

American star finishes Games with team title and all-around and vault gold medals

Simone Biles holds up her medals won at the Paris Olympics. AP

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Simone Biles' hopes of winning a fourth Olympics gold fell just short on Monday as she stepped out of bounds twice during her floor routine to take silver, having earlier fallen off the balance beam.

Biles suffered a shock defeat in the floor exercise final as two costly errors allowed Brazil's Rebeca Andrade to snatch an unexpected gold. American Jordan Chiles claimed bronze.

Biles was heavily favoured coming into the final given the difficulty of her high-flying routine but landed with two feet out of bounds on two of her four tumbling passes.

She paid a heavy price for those mistakes as the deductions she incurred denied her what would have been her fourth gold medal of these Games.

The final day of the artistic gymnastics programme did not end the way Biles would have wanted as she also suffered disappointment in the balance beam final, finishing fifth after slipping off that apparatus.

Despite the less than ideal finale, the Paris Games still mark a triumphant comeback for the 27-year-old Biles.

Biles went into the final day of competition with a chance to push her tally of Paris golds to a record-setting five in one Games.

She had already led the USA to team gold and regained the all-around crown she first won as part of a four-gold haul in Rio in 2016.

She soared to the vault title with a stellar rendition of her signature Yurchenko double pike vault to take her career tally of Olympic golds to seven.

But she couldn't find her way back to the top of the podium on Monday.

Her earlier fall from the beam – one of several in the final – was the first major misstep of her thrilling Olympic return, three years after a bout of the disorientating "twisties" cut short her Tokyo Games campaign.

Biles finished fifth in beam, where Alice D'Amato became the first Italian woman gymnast to claim Olympic gold with a score of 14.366.

Teammate Manila Esposito joined D'Amato on the podium in third, with China's Zhou Yuqin taking silver.

The treacherous nature of the 10cm-wide beam was clear when the first three starters made mistakes.

China's world silver medallist Zhou lost her balance and had to grab the beam to avoid coming off.

American medal contender Sunisa Lee took a hard fall on to the beam when her foot slipped at the end of an aerial series. Brazilian Julia Suarez also fell and Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voinea fell twice.

D'Amato had a couple of minor wobbles in an otherwise impeccable routine to seize first place just before Biles competed.

The US superstar made a confident start. But she slipped off on an aerial series, drawing a collective gasp from the crowd.

Lee said she and Biles were both put off by crowd members trying to quiet others who were cheering during the beam competition – including competitors trying to encourage their teammates.

"You could feel the tension in the room," Lee said. "Me and Simone were like, 'Why are they shushing?'

"She came off, and she was like 'I don't know why they were shushing in the middle of my routine'."

Meanwhile, China's Zhang Yufei has said she would like to take a break from swimming after ending her Paris Games with six medals to become her country's most decorated Olympic swimmer.

The 26-year-old claimed a bronze in the 50m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay to take her career tally to 10 over the Tokyo and Paris Olympics after coming home empty-handed from her debut in Rio.

"This is my third Olympics," Zhang said. "I've spent 12 years fully concentrated on swimming and never tried anything else. After this Olympics I'd like to experience other aspects in life."

Zhang won three other bronze medals in 100m and 200m butterfly and the 4x100m freestyle relay. She also won silver in the mixed 4x100m medley relay.

"If you look at my times in the individual races, they weren't that good," Zhang said. "That considered I still won six medals. For me personally that was already a huge breakthrough. I feel especially proud of myself."