Career
She collected two medals, gold and silver, in the 100 (5998) and 200 m butterfly (2:1060) at the 2004 European Junior Swimming Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. Bulakhova qualified for the women"s 200 m butterfly, as Russia"s youngest swimmer (aged 15), at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by eclipsing a FINA B-standard entry time of 2:14.07 from the European Junior Championships. She edged out Chinese Taipei"s Cheng Wan-jung to lead the first heat by a 3.26-second margin in 2:12.99.
Bulakhova missed the semifinals by two thirds of a second (066), as she placed eighteenth overall in the prelims.