Biden to give Presidential Medal of Freedom award to Biles, McCain and nurse Lindsay

United States President Joe Biden will be presenting the country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 17 people. These include actor Denzel Washington, gymnast Simone Biles and late Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican with whom Joe Biden served in the U.S. Senate.

White House said on Friday that President Biden will also recognize Sandra Lindsay, the New York City nurse who “rolled up her sleeve on live television in December 2020 to receive the first COVID-19 vaccine dose”.

Honors list

President Biden’s ‘Honors list’, as shared by the White House with The Associated Press first, includes both living and deceased honorees from the arenas of Hollywood, sports, politics, the military, academia, and civil rights and social justice advocacy.

President Biden is going to present the medals next week at the White House.

Biden is himself a recipient of Medal of Freedom that was presented to him by former President Barack Obama for Biden’s public service as a Senator and Vice President. The medal was given in January 2017 which was week before they both left the office as President and VP.

The White House said, that these honorees “have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities, and across the world, while blazing trails for generations to come.”

Simone Biles is the most decorated U.S. history of gymnasts. She has won 32 Olympic and World Championship medals. Also an outspoken advocate on issues very personal to her, she has been working on issues including athletes’ mental health, children in foster care and sexual assault victims.

Sandra Lindsay, the nurse from New York, became an advocate to receive Covid-19 vaccines as she received the first dose on live television.

John McCain, the former US Senator and Presidential candidate who died of brain cancer in 2018, served in US Navy when he spent more than five years in captivity in Vietnam. He later represented Arizona in both Congress houses and in 2008 was the Republican presidential nominee. Biden has called McCain a “dear friend” and “a hero.”

Denzel Washington is a double Oscar-winning actor, director and producer, also a winner of one Tony award, two Golden Globes and the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a spokesperson for the “Boys & Girls Clubs of America”.

The other 13 medal honorees are: Sister Simone Campbell, Julieta Garcia, Gabrielle Giffords, Fred Gray, Steve Jobs, Father Alexander Karloutsos, Khizr Khan, Diane Nash, Megan Rapinoe, Alan Simpson, Richard Trumka, Wilma Vaught and Raul Yzaguirre.