Malaysian Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh receives Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden – the top US civilian award
- The honorees list pays homage to firsts in their field, including the Everything Everywhere All at Once star, the first Asian to win the Oscar for Best Actress
- Team USA swimmer Katie Ledecky, assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers and TV host Phil Donahue were also among those celebrated
Malaysia’s Michelle Yeoh was one of 19 honorees to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US President Joe Biden on Friday.
Others receiving the highest US civilian award included Team USA swimmer Katie Ledecky, assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers and television host Phil Donahue.
“Don’t let age get in your way,” Biden, the oldest US president at 81, said to Ledecky, 27, as he encouraged her to seek more medals during an awards ceremony at the White House on Friday.
“Katie, age is just a number, kid.”
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Malaysians rejoice as Michelle Yeoh wins her first Oscar and makes history
The honoree list pays special homage to “firsts” in their field, including Yeoh, who was the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Actress with her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space; and Jim Thorpe, the versatile athlete who became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal in 1912.
Biden also celebrated some key political allies in the Democratic Party, from congressman Jim Clyburn, who rescued his 2020 presidential primary bid with an endorsement in South Carolina, to Nancy Pelosi, who shepherded his legislative agenda through Congress as House of Representatives speaker until last year.
Also included are several one-time presidential candidates, former US senator Elizabeth Dole, former vice-president Al Gore, one-time secretary of state John Kerry and previous New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“After winning the popular vote, he accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of unity and trust in our institutions,” Biden said of Gore’s concession to George W. Bush in the 2000 election, a jab at ex-US president Donald Trump, who has never conceded his 2020 loss to Biden.
“That to me was amazing what you did, Al. I won’t go into that.” The remark drew some laughter.
“In my view, the last two guys should be standing here at this podium,” Biden said of Gore and Kerry.
Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who strayed from the Republican Party he once called home, may become an important financial backer of the president’s 2024 re-election campaign.
Biden also honoured Father Greg Boyle, a Catholic priest who founded the gang intervention programme Homeboy Industries; Opal Lee, an activist who pushed for Juneteenth to be a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States; Senator Frank Lautenberg, a consumer safety advocate; astrophysicist Jane Rigby; United Farm Workers president Teresa Romero; LGBT advocate Judy Shepard; and Clarence B. Jones, who helped draft Martin Luther King Jnr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
