Natalja Matvejewa was trained in a military school. The policewoman lives in Moscow and starts for Dynamo Moscow . Matvejewa made her international debut in a 10-kilometer FIS race in November 2004 as 47th in Muonio . Just a month later, she won a race over this distance in St. Gallen . Then she made her World Cup debut in a mixed nation relay a few days later in Lago di Tesero . The highlight of the first season were the Junior World Championships in Rovaniemi , where she was fourth in sprint. At the first race of the 2005/06 season, a sprint in Düsseldorf , Matvejewa started in an individual World Cup for the first time. In this individual as well as in the following team sprint, she came third. In the years that followed, the young Russian specialized in sprint races and rarely competed in distance races. At the Junior World Championship in Kranj in 2006 , she won silver in sprint races behind Astrid Jacobsen . At the start of the Olympic Games in Turin, she was due to increased hemoglobin levels with a five-day protective barrier occupied. After the suspension expired, she started in the sprint competition, where she finished 30th. In the following season, she again achieved a top placement as runner-up in the sprint at the season opener in Düsseldorf. In December 2007 she started in the Eastern Europe Cup for the first time . She took two wins in Krasnogorsk . In January 2007 she won her first title at the Russian championships as a sprint winner in Syktyvkar . In the overall sprint World Cup of the 2006/07 season, she finished third behind Virpi Kuitunen and Petra Majdič . She was sixth in the overall ranking of the Eastern Europe Cup. At the beginning of the 2007/08 season she started the season again very successfully in Düsseldorf. She won her first World Cup with the sprint race and was second in the team sprint with Natalja Korosteljowa . It was followed in the season by further top ten placements including a third place together with Yevgenia Schapovalova in the team sprint in Liberec and a second place in the sprint in Lahti . She won twice at the Eastern Europe Cup in Krasnogorsk. She finished the season in fourth place in the sprint classification and sixth in the Eastern Europe Cup. At the end of March 2008 she was again Russian sprint champion.
On April 8, 2009, the FIS announced that Matvejewa had tested positive for the blood doping agent EPO during a doping control in Whistler, Canada in January . In December 2009 Matveyeva was banned for doping for two years with retroactive effect from January 2009. The Russian Ski Association then announced that it would appeal this decision to the International Court of Justice for Sports . After the suspension expired, she took part again in the cross-country skiing world cup at the beginning of the 2011/12 season. She came third in the sprint and second in the team sprint in Düsseldorf . This was followed by further placements among the top ten, including a second place in the sprint in Davos and a third place in Otepää . In December 2011 she won her fifth victory in the Eastern Europe Cup in Krasnogorsk . At the end of the season she finished fifth in the Sprint World Cup. In the following season she could not repeat her strong results in individual. A second place in the team sprint in Sochi was her best result of the season. At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Val di Fiemme , she came 21st in the sprint and seventh in the team sprint. Also in the 2013/14 season she mostly only achieved midfield results. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, she came 20th in the sprint. After two victories at the Eastern Europe Cup in Vershina Tjoi at the beginning of the 2014/15 season, she finished in the top ten three times in the World Cup, including second place in the sprint in Rybinsk . In the Eastern Europe Cup she took second place once and first place twice. She finished the season in ninth place in the Sprint World Cup and first place in the overall ranking of the Eastern Europe Cup. At the beginning of the 2015/16 season she came in 40th place at the Nordic Opening in Ruka . In the further course of the season she achieved three top ten results in World Cup sprints. She was third in Drammen and finished 15th in the Sprint World Cup at the end of the season. After fourth place in the World Cup sprint in Ruka and sixth place in the sprint in Davos at the beginning of the 2016/17 season, she won the sprint at the Alpencup in Goms and twice in the sprint at the Eastern Europe Cup in Krasnogorsk. In January 2017 she won the World Cup in Toblach in the sprint and together with Julija Belorukowa in the team sprint. At the Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti in 2017 , she and Julija Belorukowa won the silver medal in the team sprint. She also achieved ninth place in the individual sprint. At the end of March 2017 she became the Russian sprint champion. She finished the season in 30th place in the overall World Cup and in seventh place in the Sprint World Cup.
In the 2018/19 season, Matveyeva achieved third place in the overall ranking of the Eastern Europe Cup with two wins. In the World Cup she finished with nine places in the points, 46th place in the overall World Cup and 21st place in the Sprint World Cup. At the season highlight, the Nordic World Ski Championships 2019 in Seefeld in Tyrol , she finished 24th in the sprint.
In December 2017, Matveyeva and ten other Russian athletes were banned from the Olympic Games for life.
In 125 World Cup races to date, she has made it into the top 10 36 times and made it onto the podium 12 times (as of the end of the 2018/19 season).