[7][8] Coached initially by Marina Vakhrameeva, she later moved to the group of Tatiana Mishina, who was assisted by Alla Piatova.

She then won gold at the 2009 World Junior Championships.,[4] a surprising win as the focus was on Caroline Zhang, Ashley Wagner, and Elene Gedevanishvili as the leading contenders for the title.

She then won the silver medal at the 2010 Russian Championships and was selected to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics, where she placed ninth.

[10] After placing fourth at the 2011 Skate Canada, she won bronze at 2011 NHK Trophy and silver at 2011 Cup of Russia to qualify for her second Grand Prix Final.

At the 2012 European Championships, she finished seventh and sustained an injury to her left knee during the free skate.

[citation needed] Leonova finished seventh at the 2013 Russian Championships where she competed with a new long program that was put together one week before the competition.

[18] She was not assigned to the 2013 European Championships because Nikol Gosviani placed ahead of Leonova amongst the age-eligible ladies.

Leonova withdrew from her first 2013–14 Grand Prix event, the 2013 Skate Canada, due to a sprained ankle.

She finished seventh in the most competitive event of the Grand Prix season, achieving new personal bests in the short program and total score.

Leonova is renowned for either superb technical ability, great style or artistic abilities, or noteworthy consistency, but she increasingly has gained recognition and praise for her unique choreography, on ice personality and delivery of her programs, and speed and attack.

Her programs in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, done by renowned choreographer Nikolai Morozov, were noted for their creativity, rather bizarre and off beat quality, and complexity, and her delivery and commitment to them were praised.

Early in her career she drew comparisons to former Russian great Irina Slutskaya due to her strong jumping ability and effervescent personality on the ice.