[3] In May 2016, it was reported that Abitova was one of 14 Russian athletes, implicated in doping following the retesting of urine from the 2008 Olympic Games.

If confirmed, under IOC and IAAF rules, she stands to lose all results, medals and records from the date of the original test to May 2016.

She won the Belgrade Marathon in 2005, finishing in 2:38:20,[6] and ran at the 2005 European Cross Country Championships, taking seventh place and leading the Russian women to a team gold.

[11] The following year she ran at the 2009 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships and finished in ninth place – the best performance by a European woman.

She participated in the inaugural edition of the Yokohama Women's Marathon held in Japan and she won the race in a time of 2:27:18.