Yao Ming to Serve as Beijing 2022 Games Bid Ambassador

One of our favorite people, Yao Ming, will serve as an ambassador for Beijing's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, along with five other athletes we're pretty sure we've never heard of.

Yao, who played basketball for China's national team during the 2008 Olympics, is the only non-winter sports ambassador named. The others are "former figure skating pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, speed skater Zhang Hong, aerial skier Li Nina, and Paralympic Games champion Hou Bin," according to CRI English.

Yao's diplomatic skills have become his post-basketball trademark, serving as a representative in various capacities for the NBA, as a spokesperson against the shark fin and ivory trades for WildAid, and now his Olympic role. A former eight-time NBA all-star, Yao played nine NBA seasons before retiring in 2011.

Photo: Wikimedia