American gymnast Simone Biles receives the Presidential medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden during a ceremony where President Joe Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to seventeen recipients in the East Room of The White House on July 7, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Credit: © Oliver Contreras, SIPA USA/Alamy Images

With seven Olympic gold medals, one silver, two bronze, and a President Medal of Freedom, Simone Biles has quite a collection! Simone Biles, an American gymnastics star, is the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport. In 2019, she surpassed the record previously held by Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus, winning 25 world championship medals. Biles has been celebrated internationally for her grace and athletic skill in executing the most difficult moves in women’s gymnastics. This August Biles won her eighth U.S. Championship after a hiatus from competing since the 2020 Summer Olympics. (The games were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) Her win this year marks ten years since she first won the National Championship.

On July 7, 2022, Biles received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden, becoming the youngest living person in United States history to earn the honor. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor awarded by the president of the United States for outstanding service. The medal recognizes individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, or to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

The honor was established on July 6, 1945, as the U.S. Medal of Freedom by President Harry S. Truman to recognize notable civilian service that aided the United States during a time of war. On Feb. 22, 1963, after extensive study by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan, President John F. Kennedy reintroduced the medal as an honor for distinguished civilian service in peacetime. It was renamed the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Recipients have included educators, diplomats, former presidents and first ladies, authors, scientists, medical researchers, military leaders, humanitarians, religious leaders, civil rights activists, business executives, journalists, athletes, and performers.

Biles was a star of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She won a team gold medal as well as individual gold medals in the all-around, vault, and floor exercise events, plus a bronze medal on the balance beam. By winning five medals, Biles tied the record for the most medals won by an American woman gymnast in a single Olympics. Her four gold medals tied the world record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics by a female gymnast.

In 2019, Biles became the first woman to win five world championships in the all-around event. She is the first Black American to hold the women’s world all-around champion title. She won the world floor exercise title five times, the balance beam title in three times, and the vault title two times. Biles won the United States national all-around championship seven times. She was also a member of the American team that won gold medals in the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

At the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Biles brought attention to the intense pressure Olympic athletes face. After balking on the vault event in the team final, she withdrew from the rest of the team competition and four individual events—all-around, vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise—citing mental health issues. Biles went on to win a bronze medal on the balance beam. She also won a team silver medal.

Simone Arianne Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio. She grew up in Texas, raised by her grandparents. Biles was introduced to gymnastics at the age of six on a day-care field trip to a gym in Spring, Texas. She began copying the moves of gymnasts practicing in the gym, attracting the attention of a coach. Biles soon enrolled in recreational classes at the gym under instructor Aimee Boorman, who became her coach. Biles, who stands only 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 meters) tall, entered her first competition in 2011. She won her first gold medals in 2013. Within two years, she became one of the most celebrated and dominant gymnasts in history.

American Megan Rapinoe on a penalty in a match against the Netherlands on July 7, 2019, during the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.
Credit: © Romain Biard, Shutterstock

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning pioneers in a variety of areas.

An athlete, fashion icon, and role model in the LGBTQ community, Megan Rapinoe does it all. Rapinoe is a professional United States soccer player. She helped the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) win a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Rapinoe also helped the USWNT win a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. The 2020 Summer Olympic Games were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2015 and again in 2019, Rapinoe helped lead the United States to FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament championships. In 2019, she was awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player. FIFA stands for Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Federation of Association Football). FIFA is the governing body for soccer, which is called football in many parts of the world. Rapinoe also played on the U.S. World Cup team in 2011 and the U.S. Olympic team in 2016. In 2019, Rapinoe earned the Best FIFA Women’s Player award as soccer’s best female player. The award replaced the Ballon d’Or in 2016.

Rapinoe, a midfielder, is known for her dynamic skills as a scorer and playmaker. In soccer, a playmaker controls a team’s offense, often coordinating scoring chances through precise passing. For a discussion of soccer positions and formations, see Soccer (Players and officials).

Megan Anna Rapinoe was born on July 5, 1985, in Redding, California. She began playing soccer as a youth. In high school, Rapinoe played for Elk Grove Pride United, a team for players under age 19, and the Elk Grove Pride of the Women’s Premier Soccer League, a semiprofessional league in the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States. Rapinoe then played soccer at the University of Portland in Oregon, where she helped the team win a college national championship in 2005. She also played on U.S. national youth teams before debuting for the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2006. Injuries caused her to miss international tournaments in 2007 and 2008.

From 2009 through 2012, Rapinoe played in the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league and the United Soccer League’s W-League. Rapinoe also played for Olympique Lyonnais in France’s top women’s league. In 2013, Rapinoe began playing for the Seattle Reign FC (now the OL Reign) of the National Women’s Soccer League, the top tier of women’s soccer in the United States. FC stands for football club. Rapinoe (along with her soccer-playing twin sister, Rachael) also runs soccer training clinics and has worked with a number of human rights organizations, including ones devoted to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) rights. In 2022, Rapinoe received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by the president of the United States.

American country music star Loretta Lynn
Credit: © Waring Abbott, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Loretta Lynn was one of the most popular singers in the history of American country music. Lynn grew up in poverty in the Appalachian Mountains region of Kentucky. She began her singing career in her early 20′s and was known as “the Country Queen” by the mid-1960′s. Her younger sister Crystal Gayle also became a popular country singer. The two often toured together. Lynn passed away on Oct. 4, 2022.

Lynn was born on April 14, 1932, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. Her name at birth was Loretta Webb. She married Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr., at the age of 15 and had four children by the time she was 20. She began writing songs and teaching herself to play the guitar while raising her family. Her husband became her business manager and guided her singing career.

Lynn began her recording career with “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” in 1960. She also made her first appearance on the “Grand Ole Opry” radio program that year. She composed and recorded several hits during the next 10 years, which included “Success” (1961), “Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’” (1966), “Fist City” (1968), and “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1969).

The Country Music Association voted Lynn Female Vocalist of the Year several times. She was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1962 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988. Her autobiographical book Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner’s Daughter (1976) became a best seller and was made into a popular motion picture in 1980. A second volume of her autobiography, Still Woman Enough, was published in 2002. Lynn also wrote the memoir Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust (2020), about her friendship with the country music singer Patsy Cline. In 2013, Lynn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors.