Career
She represented Uzbekistan at three editions of the Olympic Games (2000, 2004, and 2008). She is also the elder sister of backstroke swimmer and two-time Olympian Danil Bugakov. Bugakova is a law school graduate at the Tashkent State University of Economics.
A year later, Bugakova made her Olympic debut, as one of Uzbekistan"s youngest swimmers, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Bugakova competed in the 100 m butterfly, where she finished last in the second heat, and forty-eight overall by six tenths of a second (060) behind Zambia"s Ellen Lendra Hight, with a time of 1:09.94. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Bugakova edged out Saint Lucia"s Natasha Sara Georgeos by less than 0.14 of a second in heat two of the 100 m butterfly, lowering her time to 1:07.08.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Bugakova decided to drop her specialty event, the 100 m butterfly, and experiment with the 50 m freestyle. She challenged seven other swimmers in heat seven, including fellow three-time Olympian Marina Mulyayeva of Kazakhstan.
Bugakova rounded out the field to last place by three seconds behind Croatia"s Monika Babok with a time of 29.73 seconds.
Bugakova failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed sixty-eighth out of 92 swimmers in the preliminary heats.