Biles bags fourth gold while China flop
US star Simone Biles got the golden finale she craved in Rio with a record-equalling fourth women's crown but former gymnastics power China leave the Games on a low.
The 19-year-old Biles wrapped up ten days of incredible gymnastics with her trademark dominant display of acrobatics and tumbling on the floor in the Rio Olympic Arena.
The 1.45m (4ft 9ins) gymnast from Texas got the crowd behind her with her Samba routine to lead a US 1-2 ahead of Aly Raisman.
It was her fifth medal in Rio and fourth in gold after the team, all-around and vault, along with bronze on the beam.
The three-time world floor champion scored 15.966 points with 2012 Olympic floor champion Raisman taking silver with 15.500.
Britain's Amy Tinkler (14.933) won bronze.
But it was a bittersweet finale for the tiny American, a day after her record push for five gold at one Olympics came off balance on the beam.
"I just wanted to end on a good note," said Biles. "It was nerve wracking but there was no room for nerves.
"It's been an amazing experience. To think of what I've won I couldn't have asked for more.
"I'm walking away from my first Olympics with five medals and four in gold, how can I be disappointed?"
She becomes the fifth woman to win four gold at the same Games joining Hungarian Agnes Keleti (1956), Soviet Larissa Latynina (1956), Czech Vera Caslavska (1968) and Romanian Ecaterina Szabo (1984).
For Raisman it was a sixth Olympic medal from London and Rio.
"This is harder than 2012 and that was hard," said the 22-year-old.
"A lot of people wrote me off but I worked as hard as I could. I got better with age."
High drama
There was high drama on the horizontal bar as defending champion Epke Zonderland took a tumble with Germany's Fabian Hambuechen adding gold to his silver and bronze from London and Beijing.
Hambuechen becomes the first German to win a gymnastics gold since Andrea Wecker won the men's horizontal bar in 1996.
"It was the only medal that wasn't mine, until now," said the 28-year-old.
"I came to Rio to enjoy my fourth Olympic Games, to have a great finish to my career, and then I made it to the high bar final, which was already a great achievement."
High-flying Dutchman Zonderland finished seventh in an eight-man field.
"I didn't think about the gold medal at all. I mean, Epke was the big guy. It was exciting," the German added.
Parallel bars gold went to Ukrainian Oleg Verniaiev, the all-around silver medallist in Rio.
The 22-year-old led the way with 16.041, ahead of American Danell Leyva (15.900), who also took horizontal bar silver.
Nile Wilson won bronze on the horizontal bar, a first for Britain on the apparatus.
The United States ended the final day of competition with 12 medals, their best showing in a Games since Los Angeles 1984 when they won 16.
But China slumped to their worst Games since taking a first gold in 1984 -- winning two bronze in the men's and women's team events -- and for the first time failing to win an individual medal.
Their last men's hopes were on the parallel bars -- Deng Shudi finished fourth and You Hao last after a fall on his dismount.
"I felt some pressure. I didn't get to sleep until 2 or 3am. I just laid on my bed. I just don't know what happened. My brain is empty," said Deng.
Wang Yan finished fourth on the women's floor.