American superstar gymnast Simone Biles made a sparking return to the Olympic arena on Sunday in front a celebrity-laden crowd at the Bercy Arena in Paris.

It has been 1090 days since Biles won a bronze medal on the balance beam in Tokyo, which came during a tumultuous Olympics in which she withdrew from her three other individual finals citing a mental block.

But the 27-year-old, who won four gold medals in Rio 2016, looks certain to add to that haul after soaring to the top of the all-round qualifying standings.

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While Biles was the star of the show in a stunning leotard featuring 10,000 Swarovski crystals, there were plenty of world-famous superstars in the crowd watching on.

Tom Cruise, Snoop Dogg, Ariana Grande and Anna Wintour were spotted watching in the stands, along with Australian movie director Baz Luhrmann.

Luhrmann and Grande were snapped having a lengthy conversation as well.

Jessica Chastain and Cynthia Erivo, who will star alongside Grande in the upcoming movie Wicked, were also there.

As was American singer John Legend, wife Chrissy Teigen and their two children.

There were all there to witness the latest chapter in the Biles’ already extraordinary career that has already yielded 37 world and Olympic medals, making her the most decorated gymnast of all time.

Her return was not without drama – during a floor return she appeared to injure her left foot, resorting to crawling back down the runway from her first practice vault on her hands and knees.

Moments later, she responded to concerns by delivering a Yurchenko Double Pike vault, otherwise known as the Biles II.

She was full of smiles following her closing routine on the uneven bars, the only one of the four individual finals on which she is almost certain — as expected — to miss out.

Biles could hardly have asked for more from her long-awaited return — the result of a journey she kick-started back into life in spectacular fashion after a year out post-Tokyo, when she won four gold medals and one silver at the World Championships in Antwerp in 2023.

The US team’s technical lead, Chellsie Memmel, had described Paris as a “redemption tour”, not just for Biles but for four of the five team members who had fallen just short in the team event in Tokyo, beaten by the now-absent athletes representing the Russian Olympic Committee.

It was wholly fitting then that Biles should return to the Olympic arena on the apparatus that had provided her solace in Tokyo, when in an extraordinary act of courage she grasped her last chance of an individual medal despite being gripped by an affliction of which she spoke eloquently and honestly.

Her beam score of 14.733 was an improvement on her score in Tokyo by almost three quarters of a point, and would place her second after two rotations, behind China’s Yaqin Zhou.

Biles then delivered her floor routine in the wake of a fall for her team-mate and the defending Olympic champion Jade Carey, which put her out of contention to retain the crown and could have impacted the US qualifying score if Biles had not delivered.

Some chance. She did so on on both floor and vault, despite the colossal weight of expectation and the evident injury concerns.

Then, with a wave to all four corners of the arena Biles finally departed, swiftly followed by the celebrity-sprinkled hordes.

She and they will be back for the women’s team final in two days’ time, where Biles’ already record-breaking medal tally is expected to grow.

– With AAP