Background
Ponomaryova was born in Balkhash, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in the former Soviet Union.
Ponomaryova was born in Balkhash, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in the former Soviet Union.
She began her international career by winning two medals at the 1981 European Junior Championships. In 1984, she made a dramatic improvement in the 400 metres hurdles to break the world record with 53.58 secs on 22 June in Kiev, to become the first woman to run below 54 seconds for the event. She was prevented from competing in that years Los Angeles Olympics due to the Soviet boycott.
1984 proved to be the only year where Ponomaryova would be the worlds number one 400 m hurdler, however her international career would continue for another decade.
In 1985, now competing as Margarita Khromova, she finished sixth in the World Cup in Canberra. In 1986, she reached the European Championship final in Stuttgart, placing eighth.
The following year she was a semi-finalist at the World Championships in Rome, narrowly missing the final. In 1990, (as Margarita Ponomaryova), she finished fifth in the European Championship final in Split.
Ponomaryova represented the Unified team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
In the semi-finals she ran 53.98 sec, to qualify for the final as the third fastest. However, in the final she only managed 54.83 to finish sixth. This was her first (and only) individual medal at Olympic or World Championship level