Career
She is the only woman to have competed in the Olympic marathon five times (1996-2012), winning a silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Between 2003 and early 2004, she took a break from running to concentrate on her baby. She returned to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but she failed to finish the race.
She finished the 2008 Olympic marathon in eighth place.
At the age of 38, she competed in her fifth Olympic marathon (the first woman to do so) in London, finishing 45th overall. She has been highly successful at the Osaka Ladies Marathon, winning three times consecutively from 1998 to 2000.
Șimon has experienced much success at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, taking individual silver and team gold at her first championships in 1996. She went on to take individual bronze medals at the 1997, 1998 and 2000 editions of the championships, in addition to further team gold and silver medals with Romania.
Her personal best time of 1:08:34 hours over the distance is the Romanian record.