Education
She graduated from Chelyabinsk Politechnical Institute.
She graduated from Chelyabinsk Politechnical Institute.
She had personal bests of 11.3 seconds for the 100 metres and 23.0 seconds for the 200 metres. She came to prominence by winning medals in the sprints at the 1963 Summer Universiade and the 1966 European Athletics Championships. Her international career ended on a high note with two gold medals in the 400 metres and relay at the 1971 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
She was also a three-time medallist at the European Cup.
Born in Chelyabinsk, Popkova trained at Burevestnik in her home town. She earned the title Master of Sports of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, International Class in 1965 and Honored Master of Sports of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in 1971.
She established herself as the Soviet Union"s top female sprinter the following year by winning the national indoor title in the 400 metres then taking a 100/200 m double at the outdoor national event. At the 1966 European Athletics Championships she took the bronze medal over 200 m (finishing behind Polish duo Irena Kirszenstein and Ewa Kłobukowska) and got her second of the competition with the Soviet 4×100 metres relay team which finished third.
She was also a double relay gold medalist for the Soviet Union at the 1967 European Indoor Games.
lieutenant was in this year that she had her greatest success with the Soviet relay team as she and her team mates set a new world record of 43.9 seconds for the 4×100 m relay at the Soviet championships then improved it further to 43.6 seconds at the athletics test event prior to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. A team comprising Popkova, Lyudmila Zharkova, Galina Bukharina and Lyudmila Samotyosova ran even faster in the Olympic final, clocking 43.41 seconds, yet this was only enough for the bronze as teams from both the United States and Cuba also went under the previous world record mark. Popkova also represented her country in the 200 m event and was narrowly eliminated in the semi-finals after finishing fifth.
She did not compete internationally in 1969 but returned in 1970 with a new focus on the 400 metres.
She opened her 1971 season with a 200/400 m double at the Soviet indoor championships. At the 1971 European Athletics Indoor Championships she claimed her first major international gold medal, winning the 400 m race in a time of 53.7 seconds.
However, these proved to be her final medals on the international stage and she retired from athletics in 1973. She later moved to Lviv and worked as an engineer