Biden awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to recipients including Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Yeoh

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday awarded 19 high-profile politicians, activists and others the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the country's highest civilian honor.

The recipients included an award-winning actor, Olympians and a former vice president.

The 19 recipients' "relentless curiosity, inventiveness, ingenuity and hope have kept faith in a better tomorrow," Biden said during the ceremony.

Biden presented the awards at the White House, detailing the recipients' accomplishments and praising their contributions.

The recipients included political powerhouses such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose House speakership overlapped with the first two years of Biden's presidency; former Vice President Al Gore, also a Democrat; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., whose 2020 endorsement of Biden is often credited for delivering a major boost to his campaign; and Elizabeth Dole, a former Republican senator from North Carolina and advocate for military caregivers who was the secretary of both labor and transportation.

Biden seemingly swiped at former President Donald Trump when discussing Gore's 2000 presidential campaign, during which he won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

"He accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of unity and trust in our institutions," Biden said, seeming to implicitly contrast Gore with Trump's repeated unwillingness to accept the 2020 election results.

Gore conceded the 2000 election in a phone call to former President George W. Bush but then retracted it as he pursued lawsuits in the immediate aftermath of the 2000 election. The litigation culminated in the landmark Supreme Court case of Bush v. Gore, which settled a dispute over the results in Florida. Gore then conceded on Dec. 13, 2000, saying, “I accept the finality of the outcome, which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College.”

The list of recipients also featured several people who have broken barriers in their fields, including actor Michelle Yeoh, the first person of Asian descent to win the best actress Oscar; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman to travel to space; and Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal. Record-breaking Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, who has won seven Olympic gold medals, also made the list.

The 81-year-old president joked about age when discussing the accomplishments of Ledecky, who is 27 years old, "which some say is old for swimming."

"Don't let age get in your way," Biden joked to Ledecky. "Katie, age is just a number, kid."

Thorpe, who died in 1953; Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died in 2013; and civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in 1963, were honored posthumously.

The recipients "are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields," the White House said in a statement announcing the recipients.

"They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service," it added.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com