Competing mainly in American competitions, she achieved over 35 international medals in her career; there were 24 years between her first and last podium finishes.

In the later years of her career, Venezuela fell into a state of crisis, with Larreal critical of corruption among sporting bodies.

[12] Her father introduced her to cycling;[13] she was already fast on a velodrome track when young[14] and began competing when she was 8, representing the Capital District in the 1986 youth Vuelta de Lara.

[18] Larreal's first championship was the 1990 Central American and Caribbean Games,[9] where she was the only female track cyclist from Venezuela to compete[19]: 474  and won the silver medal in the sprint.

[9][19]: 486–487  Still a teenager, she next competed at the VIII National Youth Games held in Maracaibo in 1991, winning two gold medals, for sprint and pursuit.

[26] She saw success in more stages of the 1997 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics and, at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games hosted in Maracaibo, set a new flying 200m championship record of 12.13; as the organisers did not use approved electronic timing devices, times set at the event were not recognised.

[29] Larreal came to renown across South America in 2001, when she won three gold medals (including the elimination race) at the 2001 Bolivarian Games, with the cycling events taking place in Quito.

[30][31] Larreal again won three gold medals in one championship at the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Games, including defeating main rival Nancy Contreras in the sprint.

[33] She later did aspire to the 2008 Olympics but suffered a broken femur and missed the Games, which again made her consider ending her career; instead she returned to smaller championships in 2009.

[53] The results in sprint cycling from other Venezuelans were of a lower standard and she wanted to inspire another generation of track cyclists.

Speaking to Diario Panorama at the time, she called for the removal of corruption in Venezuelan sport as a way of helping athletes improve.

[53] Larreal was preparing to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics when the Venezuelan Cycling Federation, which was run by the government and which she had criticised for not giving athletes their assigned funding, refused to register her at qualifying events.

[54] In 2001 she had criticized his government for only providing support to athletes at the last minute, after it was most necessary,[15] then in 2004 she had praised Chávez for heavily funding and promoting sports in Venezuela in the prior few years.

[60] She was still associated with Vente Venezuela at the time of her death, having in August 2024 supported María Corina Machado[16][20] and posted on social media about the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, political crisis and protests.

[55] Larreal lived in Miami in 2016, where she drove an Uber, using what she earned to fund her education and send medicine and food packages to her father, though these were often confiscated by the Venezuelan regime.

[20] A friend then asked the police to conduct a welfare check, which they did on the afternoon of 15 August,[62] when she was found dead at her apartment in Las Vegas at the age of 50.

[2][62] The 2024 Vuelta a España began on 17 August 2024, with Colombian former cyclist Víctor Hugo Peña presenting the tour for ESPN and giving a tribute to Larreal at its opening.

Larreal's mother, Gladis Teresa, had died years earlier and been interred at the Cementerio del Este [es] in Caracas.