Shobukhova began to compete in road races, winning the 2007 Prague Half Marathon, but she still reached the 5000 m final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

[4] Her former personal best time of 2:18:20 hours was the Russian record for the event and made her the second fastest woman ever after Paula Radcliffe until it and all her other race results since 9 October 2009 were annulled following an adverse finding of biological passport abnormalities indicative of drug use.

[8] In the 2008 Russian Championships held in Kazan on 19 July 2008, she set a new European 5000 m record of 14:23.75, to become the fourth fastest ever over the distance.

[11] After the Olympics, she won the Philadelphia Distance Run and set a half marathon best of 1:10:21, beating Catherine Ndereba to the line.

[15] She started 2011 with a Russian record performance at the London Marathon, finishing in a new personal best of 2:20:15, but she had to settle for second behind Mary Keitany of Kenya.

[3] She looked to revive her season with a defence of her title at the 2012 Chicago Marathon but she dropped away from the leaders in the second half of the race and finished in fourth.

[5] Paula Radcliffe, the women's marathon world record holder, commented that Shobukhova was "finally exposed as a drug cheat.