As early as 1981, she was part of the gold medal winning Soviet team at the World Cross Country Championships, which she repeated in 1982. In 1983 she achieved the individual bronze medal in the long race, 20 seconds ahead of Joan Benoit and just 8 seconds behind Grete Waitz. But the Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Olympics where those two were the Gold and Silver medalists in the first women's Olympic marathon at the 1984 Olympics. Following her lead, the Soviet team won the Silver medal in 1983 and again in 1985. She also participated in 1989 and 1990 but was not a scoring member of the silver and gold medal winning Soviet teams.