Gymnast Simone Biles given highest US civilian award

Olympic gymnast Simone Biles has become the youngest person ever to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US.

President Biden awarded the medals to a number of people at the ceremony in the White House, including football World Cup champion Megan Rapinoe and Sandra Linsday, an intensive care nurse who was the first person in the US to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

Honourees of the award are considered to have made “meritorious contributions” to the US, in areas including national security, world peace of cultural endeavours.

Recipients of the award from previous years include actor Tom Hanks, singer Diana Ross and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.