Bugakov started his swimming career at the very young age, and came from a sporting family, in which his parents were both trained in the pool as "working reserves". In 2002, he first competed at the Asian Age Group Championships in Hong Kong, where he became a junior champion in the backstroke category. Bugakov made his official debut, as a 16-year-old, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where he competed in the men's 100 m backstroke. With a slight experience in an international level, he recorded the second-slowest time of 1:02.28 in the preliminary heats, finishing only in forty-third place. Bugakov had received numerous achievements in swimming at the peak of his career. In 2005, he captured a total of seven medals, including his silver for the 100 m backstroke, in short course swimming, at the first-ever Asian Indoor Games in Bangkok, Thailand. He also added two medals, including silver for the freestyle relay at the 2006 Asian Swimming Championships in Singapore. At the 2007 FINA World Championships, Bugakov improved his personal best in the 100 m backstroke, by finishing the preliminary heats under one minute, with a time of 58.74 seconds. Four years after competing in his first Olympics, Bugakov qualified for his second Uzbekistan team, as a 20-year-old, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He cleared FINA B-standard entry times of 57.03 from the Russian Open in Moscow and 2:05.48 from the Kazakhstan Open in Almaty. In the 100 m backstroke, Bugakov posted his personal best of 56.59 seconds to touch the wall first in heat 1 by less than 0.17 of a second ahead of Kazakhstan's Stanislav Osinsky, but finished only in thirty-ninth place. In the 200 m individual medley, Bugakov challenged six other swimmers on the same heat including two-time Olympian Omar Pinzón of Colombia. He rounded out the heat in last place by three seconds behind Kyrgyzstan's Iurii Zakharov, with a slowest preliminary time of 2:10.04. Bugakov is an economics graduate, major in statistics and mathematics, at the Tashkent State University of Economics. He is also a current member of Wasserfreunde 98 in Hanover, Germany under head coach and trainer Frank Lamodke, and speaks fluent English, German, and Uzbek.
