[1] Tsarukaeva participated in the women's -58 kg category at the 2006 World Weightlifting Championships and won the silver medal, finishing behind Qiu Hongmei.

[1] Tsarukaeva entered the 2008 Summer Olympics as the favourite for the 63 kg event.

[2][3] Tsarukaeva was initially awarded a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Women's 63 kg event.

However, on 27 July 2016, the IWF reported that, in the IOC's second wave of re-sampling for doping violations at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Tsarukayeva had tested positive for the steroid dehydrochlormethyltestosterone.

On 5 April 2017 it was announced that as a result of retesting samples she had been disqualified from the 2012 Olympics for a drug violation, and her silver medal withdrawn.