Born in
Angarsk, Konovalova began her
athletics career as a
5000 metres track runner. She made her first major appearance over the distance at the
1995 World Championships in Athletics. There, she finished in sixth place in the final with a time of 15:01.23. She had also run over
3000 metres at the
1995 IAAF World Indoor Championships, where she was twelfth overall. She was fifth in that event the following year at the
1996 European Athletics Indoor Championships and won the
bronze medal at the
1998 IAAF Grand Prix Final. Fourth in the 5000 m at the
1999 European Cup was followed by a seventh-place finish in the final of the event at the
1999 World Championships in Athletics. Konovalova progressed into
cross country running in the middle of her career. A tenth-place finish at the
2005 European Cross Country Championships was enough to help her Russian teammates (led by
Inga Abitova) to the team
gold medal. She reached the individual podium the following year at the
2006 European Cross Country Championships, taking the
silver medal, although Russia finished fourth in the national team rankings. Konovalova returned to the competition for a third time at the
2007 European Cross Country Championships but finished in fourth place. Konovalova won at the 2008
Fukuoka International Cross Country meeting in a fast time of 18:54, and she took another circuit win that year at the
Almond Blossom Cross Country. Competing on the
track, Konovalova finished eleventh in the 5000 metres at the
2007 World Championships and fifth in the
10,000 metres final at the
2008 Olympic Games, the latter in a new personal best time of 30:35.84 minutes. She returned to the world stage at the
2009 World Championships in Athletics but could only manage eleventh place in the
10,000 m final. Konovalova opened the 2010 season with a new
Russian record in the
2000 metres event at the
Yalamov Memorial Meeting. Konovalova made her debut in the
marathon at the
2010 London Marathon in April and finished in sixteenth place overall, a result that was later annulled following her 2015 suspension for doping violations. The
2010 European Athletics Championships saw her represent Russia over 5000 m, and she finished in fifth place behind the Ethiopian and Portuguese duos. At the
2010 Chicago Marathon, she reached her first major marathon podium, taking third place with a time of 2:23:50 as her compatriot
Liliya Shobukhova won with a national record. This result was also later annulled following her 2015 suspension for doping. She ran at the
2011 London Marathon but could manage only tenth in the fast race, another result that was later annulled following her 2015 suspension for doping. In 2015, at age 40, Konovalova set a masters marathon world record, running a new marathon personal best as she placed second at the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in Japan in 2:22:27. This result was later annulled following her 2015 suspension for doping. She broke the previous world masters standard of 2:24:54, set by Germany’s
Irina Mikitenko at the 2013
Berlin Marathon, but the result was later annulled following her 2015 suspension for doping. ==Doping==