The highest US honor for Denzel Washington, Steve Jobs and 15 other Americans
The White House announced Friday that actor Denzel Washington, late Apple founder Steve Jobs, soccer player Megan Rapinoe and gymnast Simone Biles will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
They are among 17 Americans honored by President Joe Biden for their outstanding contributions to US prosperity and values, world peace, or other projects of importance, according to a US presidency statement.
Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington is particularly known for his roles in "Malcolm X" and "Philadelphia".
Finally, he starred in the movie "The Tragedy of Macbeth", which was released in 2021, for which Washington earned another Oscar nomination.
Megan Rapinoe, the star of the US women's soccer team, is "very committed to gender pay equity, racial justice, and LGBT rights," according to the US Presidency.
The White House said the winners included Simone Biles, "the most decorated American gymnast in history," but also a "great advocate" for the mental health of athletes and victims of sexual abuse.
Beals is one of the victims of Larry Nassar, a former US women's gymnastics team doctor who has been convicted of sexual assaults on more than 250 gymnasts, most of them underage.
Biden will also honor John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate in 2008 and who served as a member of Congress for decades before his death in 2018, as well as Steve Jobs, who died in 2011.
Former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a shooting survivor who has since struggled to tighten gun laws, will receive the coveted award as the Biden administration tries to tackle the mass killings that regularly plague the country.
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