She competed for the Soviet Union in the 1500 m at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics; she won the event in 1972 and finished fifth in 1976.

In July 1972 she set a new 1500 m world record of 4:06.9, at the Soviet championships, and then progressively improved it in round 1 (4:06.47), the semi-finals (4:05.07), and the final (4:01.38), of the 1972 Olympics.

[3] At the European Championships, Bragina won four silver medals: in the 3,000 m outdoors (1974), and in the 800 m (1970) and 1,500 m indoors (1971–72).

[1] In 1960 Bragina started training in the high jump, and changed to running only in 1964.

After recovering she moved to the south of Russia, in Krasnodar,[4] where she later worked as an athletics coach.