Kui won the floor exercise at the 1996 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, becoming the first Chinese woman to do so. She then competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, finishing 4th with the Chinese team. She recorded the highest score of the entire Olympics on the balance beam, a 9.875 during the team optionals, and in doing so, became the only gymnast to top the 9.862 scored three consecutive times by Olympic balance beam champion Shannon Miller. However, a fall from the beam during the team compulsories (resulting in a score of 8.925) prevented Kui from making the beam finals. She also failed to make the floor exercise final, despite her world title on that event.