Humanoid Robot Shatters 100m Record at Beijing Robot Games
BEIJING — August 22, 2026 — A humanoid robot has officially broken the men’s 100-meter world record, clocking a stunning time of 9.39 seconds at the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG) on Saturday, August 22, surpassing Usain Bolt’s legendary mark of 9.58 seconds set in 2009 .
The record-breaking performance took place during the opening ceremony at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, known as the “Ice Ribbon,” marking the start of competition among humanoid robots . In the preliminary race, three humanoid robots shot off from the starting line, with the Tianzhuo team’s robot and the Wind-Fire Lightning team’s robot running neck and neck . The Tianzhuo robot crossed the finish line first by a margin of one body length, clocking the historic 9.39-second time—not only breaking the previous tournament record but also surpassing the human record of 9.58 seconds .
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Multiple Robots Surpass Bolt’s Mark
The Tianzhuo robot was not the only machine to beat Bolt’s time. Another humanoid robot, developed by the Beijing Innovation Centre of Humanoid Robotics and named “Blitz” or “Lightning,” achieved an even faster time of 9.32 seconds during a preparatory test event . According to the BBC, this robot, developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor, reached a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second and stood 169 centimeters tall with 95-centimeter legs—which researchers later lengthened by 10 centimeters ahead of the games . The Honor robot had previously broken the human world record for the half-marathon in April, completing the 21-kilometer distance in 50 minutes and 26 seconds .
A Leapfrog Breakthrough in Robotics
The 9.39-second time represents a dramatic improvement from last year’s games, when the best result in the event was 21.50 seconds . The rapid advancement—cutting the time by more than half in just one year—has been described as a “leapfrog breakthrough” in the running speed of humanoid robots .
The World Humanoid Robot Games is an Olympic-like event featuring humanoid robots competing in various athletic disciplines . Beyond the 100-meter dash, another humanoid robot hit 2.88 meters in the standing high jump, surpassing the human record of 2.45 meters set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993 . Both robots that broke the records are from X-Humanoid, which is based in Beijing .
As the games continue, anticipation is building to see if the robots can run even faster in the finals .
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