[3] In 1996 she competed at the World Championships in Budapest as a member of the group finishing 5th in the All-Around, 4th with 3 balls & 2 ribbons and winning bronze with 5 hoops.

[1][4] The following year she took 8th place in the All-Around and 7th with rope, winning bronze in the team competition and with clubs at the World Championships in Berlin.

[5] In 1998 she won silver in the team competition along Elena Vitrichenko, Ekaterina Serebrianskaya and Tamara Yerofeeva as well as 6th with clubs, the only apparatus she competed with, at the European Championships in Porto.

[6] Later Popova was again in the group, at the World Championships in Seville she was 4th in the All-Around and won bronze in the 5 balls and 3 ribbons & 2 hoops' event finals.

After her retirement she married Sergiy Dushyn and started working in his gymnastics club as a coach.