Kondratyeva began athletics at age 11 at the Children and Youth Sport School in Shakhty, her first trainer being Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlenko.

[2] Two years later she passed exams into Rostov on Don Children and Youth Sport School, created in 1971, where she was coached by Nina Vasilyevna Lazarchenko.

A photo finish showed that Kondratyeva had beaten Marlies Göhr of East Germany by just 0.01 seconds.

She retired after that season and married Yuriy Sedykh, two-time Olympic champion in the hammer throw, although they would later divorce.

The pair had a daughter, Oksana Kondratyeva, who followed in her father's footsteps and became an international hammer thrower.