The 21-year-old gymnast had high hopes of a medal in the vault, only to leave the competition in tears after tripping during her run-up in her first attempt.

But Carey, whose preparations for the Olympics were hampered by an ankle issue, responded in sensational style in today’s floor exercise.

Carey was forced to wait on the edge of the mat for several minutes while the judges totted up the score of ROC’s Viktoriia Lustunova’s error-strewn display, but the American refused to let that affect her.

She received a winning score of 14.366 points, with a 6.300 difficulty and 8.066 execution to take the title.

It was the third successive Games where a US gymnastic had claimed the women’s floor exercise crown as she followed in the footsteps of Simone Biles and Alexandra Raisman.

"Coming back from a day like yesterday, I'm really proud of myself for being able to put that behind me and finish with probably the best floor routine I've ever done in my life," said Carey.

"Yesterday was very tough for me. 

"I tripped, I guess, in my hurdle, or right before.

"I don't even know. 

"It's kind of a blur now.

"It was really hard, but I'm glad I'm safe and healthy.

"Doing that second vault, it was a challenge, but I didn't want to give up.

"For tonight, I just had to let that go and give it my all."

Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari, the 2007 and 2014 European champion in the discipline, captured silver with 14.200.

Mai Murakami of Japan and Angelina Melnikova of ROC finished level on 14.166, as they both secured bronze.

There was drama in the men’s vault final with Shin Jeah-wan of South Korea doing just enough to beat Denis Abliazin of ROC to clinch gold.

The two gymnasts both scored 14.783 but Shin was crowned champion based on the greater difficultly of his two vaults.

Artur Davtyan secured bronze for Armenia on 14.733, as Carlos Edriel Yulo of the Philippines, who was the last gymnast to compete, missed out on a place on the podium with 14.716.

In the first event of the day, China’s Liu Yang edged out compatriot You Hao and defending champion Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece to claim rings gold.

Hao was the first of the Chinese pairings to compete in the final and climbed to the top of the standings after scoring 15.300 points, with 6.600 difficulty and 8.700 execution.

But his lead did not last long as Liu overtook his fellow countryman following a sensational performance at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.

Liu appeared to hardly break sweat as he produced an excellent routine to score 15.500, with a 6.500 difficulty and 9.00 execution.

Petrounias of Greece was the penultimate gymnast to take to the rings, leaving Liu to face an anxious wait.

But the three-time world champion finished just shy of the Chinese pairing, scoring 15.200 as he claimed bronze.

Biles looks set to compete at Tokyo 2020 for the first time since pulling out of the team final during the opening rotation after being named on the start list for tomorrow's balance beam final.

The four-times Olympic and 19-times world champion withdrew from the team, individual all-around, vault, floor and uneven bars finals to focus on her mental health.

USA Gymnastics said on Twitter: "We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow - Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! 

"Can’t wait to watch you both!" 

Tomorrow is the last day of the artistic gymnastics competition, with the finals of the men's parallel bars, women's balance beam and men's horizontal bar.