She set her outdoor personal best of 2.03 metres to earn the bronze medal at the Olympic Games. Her personal bests were 1.88 metres in 2003 (Krasnodar, May), 1.91 metres in 2004 (Grosseto, WJC, July) and 1.92 metres in 2005 (Mannheim, June). She also improved her personal best to 1.96 metres in Tula in June 2007, having only managed to equal 1.92 metres the 2006 season.
2008–2009 Her first major international senior championship was the 2008 Olympic Games, where she finished fourteenth with a jump of 1.93 metres.
In 2009 she equalled this height in January in Rijeka before finishing fourth at the 2009 European Indoor Championships. She finished fourth again at the 2009 European Team Championships, by equalling her personal best for the third time in the Super League competition in Leiria.
At the 2009 World Championships and the 2009 World Athletics Final she finished sixth. With 1.96 and 1.94 metres respectively.
2010–2011 In early 2010 she broke the 2-metre barrier as she cleared 2.00 metres at the Hochsprung mit Musik event in Arnstadt in February.
She contended with Blanka Vlašić who eventually set a world leading mark of 2.06 metres. In the next three international championships she ended on the unlucky 4th place: In March 2010 at the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar (196 m), in August at the European Championships in Barcelona (197 m) and in March 2011 at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris (192 m). In July she managed to beat Vlašić at the high jump meeting in Eberstadt, Germany.
Shkolina managed 1.99 m, while Vlašić stopped at 1.97 m.