[citation needed] She won the triple jump gold medal at the Summer Universiade in 1997 and 1999 – the first time an athlete had retained the title – and also won the bronze medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics.

She attended her first Olympic Games the year after, performing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and she finished ninth in the triple jump final with a jump of 14.09 m. She remained overshadowed by compatriot Inessa Kravets, who won the gold medal.

She won the triple jump gold at the 1997 Summer Universiade,[6] and closed the year with a fourth-place finish at the 1997 IAAF Grand Prix Final.

[4] Following a strong showing with an indoor personal best of 14.55 m for fourth at the 2000 European Athletics Indoor Championships, she took advantage of Inessa Kravets' suspension for steroids use to assert herself as the top Ukrainian by jumping a personal best of 14.96 m for the bronze medal at the 2000 Summers Olympics triple jump contest.

Hovorova upped her game at the 2004 European Cup in Athletics and won the bronze with a season's best jump of 14.78 m. This was to be her premature peak to the season, however, as a mark of 14.35 m brought her only tenth place at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and her final performance of the year yielded only eighth place at the 2004 IAAF World Athletics Final.