The tears flowed freely down Simone Biles’s face as she was crowned Olympic all around champion with a dazzling performance on the floor exercise on Thursday.

An athlete who had been labelled the greatest ever female gymnast, even before she made her Olympic debut, proved that all the hype had not been misplaced as she mopped up the title by a margin of 2.100 points.

Compatriot Aly Raisman claimed silver with a total of 60.098, while Russia’s Aliya Mustafina settled for bronze.

As Biles completed her final soaring tumbling pass on the floor, no one in the Olympic Arena needed to wait for the judges’ verdict to realise they had just seen the gold-medal performance.

Biles’s triumph made her the fourth successive American to win the title – following the successes of Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin and Gabby Douglas – which is the longest winning streak by a country in the Olympic discipline.

She also became the first woman in 20 years to win back-to-back world and Olympic all around titles.

“Every emotion hit me at once so I was just kind of a train wreck,” Biles said after scooping a second gold in Rio following her success in the team final on Tuesday.

“Everything was going through my head but mainly it was like I had finally done it and when that hits you, you can’t stop the emotions.”

For Raisman, claiming silver with a total of 60.098 meant redemption after she suffered a gut-wrenching disappointment to miss out on the bronze four years ago to Russia’s Aliya Mustafina on the tiebreak rule.