Simone Biles (left) and Aly Raisman
Simone Biles (left) and Aly RaismanReuters

In the final women's gymnastics event of the Rio Olympics, the floor exercise, Aly Raisman fell just short of gold, although one can hardly blame her.

Raisman's floor routine features the most complex opening tumble in the world, with four separate kinds of flips in a row. It helped her win gold in London in 2012 with a score of 15.600, but that wouldn't have been enough this time. The imperious and dominant Simone Biles got a score of 15.966 for her routine. Biles just does everything with much more power and height than anyone else.

Raisman earned a score of 15.500, beating surprise bronze medalist Amy Tinkler of Great Britain, only 16, by more than half a point. The silver medal caps a very successful Olympics for Raisman, as she captained the US to gold in the team all-around competition, won silver in the prestigious individual all-around competition, and this silver in the floor.

Biles finishes the Games with a whopping five medals, four gold and one bronze, with her only hiccup coming in the balance beam, where a near-fall cost her perfection.

So what next for Raisman and Biles? The careers of female gymnasts are notoriously short. The fact that Raisman even made it to these Olympics at 22 after already competing four years ago was already no mean feat. Coming back for another round at age 26 is rare, though not unheard of. Biles is 19, and at the absolute top of her game. If she keeps it up and manages to come back in 2020 in Tokyo at anything near her current form, she'll be in with a chance to be counted among the greatest Olympians of all time.