At only 16, Babkina was one of key members of the Latvia team who won a bronze medal at the 2005 U20 European Championship Women. Since then her improvement has been up and down. She is very quick, with good shooting and passing skills, but her level of performance is not stable enough. Besides, some injuries or misunderstandings with coaches put the brakes on her progress. In 2007, a broken finger prevented her from playing at the EuroBasket Women. In 2008, Babkina was the third choice at point guard in Latvia's Olympic squad so she saw very limited playing time. After some seasons with Latvia's top club, TTT Riga, Babkina went to SK Cesis and improved her stats to 9.2 points and 1.6 assist per game in EuroCup Women. Now, Elina is expected to play a more important role both with her club and the national team.