Abstract: The paper depends on literature material, logic analysis and other research methods to trace the origin and development of China's public sports envoy and discusses the supporting theory of public sports envoys, concept and features. It discusses the social conditions and practical demands of forwarding China's public sports envoys in the four aspects of Chinese sports' entry into the age of public diplomacy; the emergence of many high quality and international sports stars, the public sports diplomatic envoys' transmission of positive signals on the sensitive international issues and the envoys as effective carrier of Chinese national image. Therefore, in the age of public diplomacy,with the direct support of national resources, China needs to follow the trend of world public diplomacy, discover and absorb elite sports representatives so as to cultivate a group of influential envoys of sports public diplomacy at home and abroad.

Key words: public diplomacy, unitary actor, sports public diplomatic envoy, national image