Simone Biles swept to four gold medals in Rio but the bronze she earned at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo after a tumultuous week of psychological counselling and family tragedy must arguably rank as the greatest achievement of her glittering career.

Cleared to compete after missing the all-around final and the first three of four individual finals for which she had qualified, Biles delivered a deliberately toned-down performance which scored 14.0 and placed her third behind Chinese teenagers Chenchen Yuan and Tang Xijing.

After a week of medical evaluations and counselling sessions, and revealing that her paternal aunt died unexpectedly just two days ago, Biles acknowledged her true victory lay in simply stepping back out onto the Olympic floor once again.

Biles was embraced by her team-mate and fellow finalist Sunisa Lee, who succeeded Biles as the all-around champion last week, and waved to the audience before stepping onto the podium and placing an improbable seventh Olympic medal round her neck.

She acknowledged the support of fellow athletes had helped steel herself to return, and criticised those on social media who have questioned her reasons for withdrawing.

"I kind of felt embarrassed with myself, especially when I went to the (Olympic) Village and (people) said to me how much I had done for them," said Biles. "I was crying in the Olympic Store because I just wasn't expecting that.

"I got a lot of great comments and an out-pouring of support and love but I also got a lot of bad stuff. I woke up the other day and my aunt had unexpectedly passed and I'm like, you guys have no idea what we're going through. I feel like if you can't do what we can do, you can't talk yet."