Kui Yuanyuan
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Kui Yuanyuan (
Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example * Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...
: 奎媛媛; born June 23, 1981) is a former artistic gymnast from China who competed in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.


Gymnastics career

Kui won the floor exercise at the
1996 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 1996 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 16 to 20 April 1996. The team and all-around events were not contested at the 1996 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The format was similar to that o ...
, becoming the first Chinese woman to do so. She then competed at the
1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
, 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 Shannon Lee Miller (born March 10, 1977) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 1993 and 1994 world all-around champion, the 1996 Olympic balance beam champion, the 1995 Pan American Games all-around champion, and a member of the g ...
. 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. Kui went on to win two bronze medals at the 1997 World Championships, with her team and on the balance beam. The balance beam result was controversial: Kui performed the most difficult routine of all the competitors in the final—including a full-twisting back layout, as well as three split leaps to a back handspring and two layout step-outs—but finished .012 behind Romania's
Gina Gogean Gina Elena Gogean (born 9 September 1977) is a retired artistic gymnast from Romania who competed internationally in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. During her career she won an impressive number of 30 medals at Olympic Games, world cha ...
. She lost the silver medal to
Svetlana Khorkina Svetlana Vasilyevna Khorkina (russian: Светлана Васильевна Хоркина; born 19 January 1979) is a retired Russian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics, and the 2004 Summer Ol ...
of Russia in a tie-breaker. The results prompted the president of the
International Federation of Gymnastics The International Gymnastics Federation (French: Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, FIG) is the body governing all disciplines of competitive gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on July 23, 1881, in ...
to publicly chastise the judges. The following year, Kui won two gold medals at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok and two medals at the World Cup Final. In 1999, she had an injury and could not compete. She recovered in time for the
2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...
, where she hoped to win the individual gold medal on the balance beam that eluded her in 1996. However, she injured her knee while vaulting during the preliminary round of competition and could not compete in the finals. She admitted that it was emotionally devastating for her to watch her teammate Liu Xuan take the beam gold. The Chinese team finished 3rd, but the medal was stripped by the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
in 2010 after one of the team members,
Dong Fangxiao Dong Fangxiao ( Chinese: 董芳霄; ''Dǒng Fāngxiāo'') is a Chinese retired international gymnast who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She won a bronze medal with the Chinese team at the Olympics, as well as the 1999 World Championshi ...
, was found to have been underage during the competition.


Post-gymnastics life

After retiring from gymnastics, Kui had surgery on her knee. She began studying French at the
Beijing University of International Business and Economics The University of International Business and Economics (UIBE; abbr. 贸大, ''Mào Dà''), is a public research university specialized in undergraduate and graduate education in economics, finance, international business, management, bus ...
, but dropped out after a few semesters. In March 2006, she married her boyfriend of two years, a football player. A year later, she gave birth to a daughter. Kui remains close friends with former teammates Peng Sha (her daughter's godmother) and
Bi Wenjing Bi Wenjing (; born 1981) is a Chinese gymnast. She competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, winning a silver medal in uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kui, Yuanyuan 1981 births Living people Chinese female artistic gymnasts World champion gymnasts Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals Gymnasts from Beijing Asian Games medalists in gymnastics Gymnasts at the 1998 Asian Games Olympic gymnasts of China Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games silver medalists for China Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games