Lidia Slăvuțeanu-Șimon (born 4 September 1973) is a Romanian

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

. She competed in the Olympic marathon five times (1996–2012), winning a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics. She is also a former marathon world champion.

Career

Competing in the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

, she won bronze medals at the World Championships in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, before finally winning the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

in Edmonton 2001. She won a bronze medal over

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

at the 1998 European Championships. At the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

she won the silver medal behind Naoko Takahashi,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

but ahead of Joyce Chepchumba, Kenya. 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 The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, 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. Her personal best in the marathon came during her win in 2000, in which she finished with a time of 2:22:54. Between 2000 and 2002 she appeared several times on Japanese variety television shows, running handicap races against teams of Japanese TV tarentos. The only person ever to defeat Șimon was her own husband, who, not being a professional athlete, started among one group of tarentos and managed not only to outrun all the TV stars but to cross the finish line with 30 seconds left of his 5-minute headstart over Lidia, to a standing ovation from the Japanese audience. 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. She was the winner at the first edition of the combined Osaka Marathon in October 2011. Among other achievements on the international road racing circuit, she won the Bolder Boulder 10K and Sapporo Half Marathon in 1999 and 2001, the

Boilermaker Road Race The Boilermaker Road Race is a USATF-certified foot race and wheelchair race held annually in Utica, New York, United States. Although local recreational runners are the majority of entrants, the race is highly competitive, with international ...

and Shanghai Marathon in 2007.

Achievements

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Lidia 1973 births Living people People from Târgu Cărbunești Romanian female long-distance runners Romanian female marathon runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Romania Olympic silver medalists for Romania Romanian expatriate sportspeople in the United States World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Championships winners