Athlete and WildAid ambassador for sharks, elephants, rhinos
Yao Ming is a retired NBA basketball legend and was an eight-time all-star. He was a member of the Chinese Olympic Basketball Team in 2000, 2004, and 2008 - when he was the leader of China’s Olympic delegation. Yao is now president of the Chinese Basketball Association, owner of the Shanghai Sharks professional basketball team, and executive director of the Yao Ming Foundation. Yao became a WildAid ambassador in 2006 when he signed the pledge to give up shark fin soup, and has since appeared in numerous ads, billboards, and TV public service announcements calling for an end to the illegal wildlife trade. He has championed the conservation of sharks, elephants, and rhinos with messages that have reached hundreds of millions of people in China and around the world. Yao Ming is the star of our documentary The End of the Wild, a film that depicts the tragic poaching crises decimating elephant and rhino populations in Africa. He was instrumental in bringing about China's landmark ivory ban at the end of 2017.
