Brave Biles bounces back from adversity to battle to bronze on final day of gymnastics at Tokyo 2020

She has four Olympic golds and 19 World Championship titles but this beam bronze might just be the most meaningful medal of Simone Biles' life.

Few can imagine the intense scrutiny the American has been under after she pulled out four Olympic finals, a decision she made to prioritise her mental health.

But she went for it on beam and delivered the gutsiest routine of her career to win a seventh Olympic medal on the final day of gymnastics in Tokyo.

It was not enough for gold, her modest score of 14.000 comfortably beaten by the spell-binding Chenchen Guan and her Chinese teammate Xijing Tang, while it would have only been good enough for tied seventh at Rio 2016.

But this was not about perfect dismounts or awesome arch positions. Instead, Biles - the poster girl of these Games - showed character and resilience just by competing.

"I hope it sends [the message] that first I did this for me and nobody else because I wanted to compete one more time at the Olympic Games," she said after a comeback broadcast live on Eurosport and Discovery+.

"It's not easy giving up a dream of five years and not getting to do it. It was really, really hard.

"I've never been in the stands, so I just wasn't used to it so to have one more opportunity to compete meant the world."

Biles' routine was not perfect, there was a wobble here and a hesitate there. But her dismount was vintage and those in the arena could only stand up and applaud.

She leaves Tokyo with one team silver and one individual bronze, not quite the haul expected on the eve of the Games, when she aimed to at least match her four golds from Rio.

But then nothing has quite gone to plan at this Olympics.

It was hoped Biles' gymnastics, so magical five years ago, would light up a world that has been shut in the dark for 18 months. But in the end she has become the perfect metaphor for a Games that has somehow gone ahead successfully during a global pandemic. Talk about triumph over adversity.

Biles lost balance when she landed her vault routine in the team final last Tuesday and felt unable to carry on.

She stayed on the sidelines and cheered her teammates to silver, later explaining she's suffering from ‘twisties' - a mental block that sees gymnasts lose control of their bodies when flying through the air.

That's a problem when it comes to vaulting, the floor and the uneven bars, so Biles pulled out of those individual finals, as well as the all-around final, but less so on beam. Still, it was far from certain she would compete.

But she walked out at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre with that familiar smile, stood and warmly applauded Elsabeth Banks and Xijing Tang who went before her, and then took a deep breath when it was her turn to compete.

A nervous silence filled the arena but the routine was over in less than 90 seconds, all Biles needs to create another magical moment.

"It's been a very long week, a very long five years," she said.

"I didn't expect to medal today, I just wanted to go out and do it for me, and that's what I did.

"It definitely feels more special, this bronze, than the balance beam bronze at Rio. I will cherish it for a long time."

If there's one thing we've learnt in the last seven days, it's to cherish Biles for a very long time too.

Stream every unmissable moment of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 live on discovery+, the Streaming Home of the Olympics.