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The world’s fastest man record was shattered on the first day of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday.
Jamaican Usain Bolt’s 100-meter dash record of 9.58 set in 2009 was edged by a Beijing-based X-Humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt, which ran 100 meters at 9:39 seconds before smashing into a blue wall.
Before the opening, a humanoid robot from Chinese smartphone company Honor completed a 100-meter sprint in a record of 9.32 seconds during a trial of the games, the company said, at a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second.
After smashing into the wall, the robots were placed on a stretcher, unlike Bolt, who was able to jog a lap to celebrate human achievement in 2009.
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Spectators watch as a Lightning humanoid robot by Honor and a Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot compete in a 100-meter exhibition race during the opening ceremony for the second World Humanoid Robot Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, China, on Aug. 22, 2026. (Florence Lo)
The World Humanoid Robot Games, in its second year, features more than 2,000 robots in 51 events and 1,000 competitions like running, table tennis and soccer. The five-day event highlights China’s rapid progress in robotics amid a heated tech race with the U.S.
The games, which are taking place in the National Speed Skating Oval built for the 2022 Winter Olympics, opened the same week Beijing was holding the 2026 World Robot Conference, where companies showcased around 3,000 products, including humanoid robots.
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Humanoid robots show they can beat the world’s fastest man reach in the 100-meter dash, but they cannot stop without a blue wall. (Tingshu Wang)
In a standing high jump, a humanoid robot was able to reach 2.88 meters, well above the 0.95 meters best result by a humanoid in last year’s first edition of the games. It surpassed the human high jump record of 2.45 meters set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993.
Some spectators at the robot games said they were excited about the humanoid robots’ quickly improving abilities.
Humanoid robots are “evolving rapidly,” said Li Yanfeng, an education worker and a Beijing resident.
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Staff members move the humanoid robots onto stretchers after crashing into the blue-cushioned wall upon completing a 100-meter race during the second World Humanoid Robot Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, China, on Aug. 22, 2026. (Florence Lo)
“At first, I wasn’t very accepting of artificial intelligence. I was even a bit resistant to it, because of the possibility that it might replace or displace humans,” she said. “But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look.”
“These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing,” said Yang Shangzheng, another spectator.
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Liu Tao, who was watching the games with his son, said that he was hoping to see “the best robots China currently has to offer.”
This year’s robot games — which the organizer said has 16 countries participating, among them Germany, Japan and the U.S. — also include other events such as weightlifting and tug of war.
Jamaican Usain Bolt ran the 100-meter dash in a human record 9.58 seconds in 2009.
The U.S. has stepped up scrutiny of robots from China, which makes the majority of the world’s humanoid robots.
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President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots, because they “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons.”
“I welcome these Executive Branch national security determinations, and I am pleased that the FCC has now added foreign produced advanced robotics and power inverters to the FCC’s Covered List,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr wrote in a statement last month. “Following President Trump’s leadership, the FCC will continue to do our part to secure America’s critical supply chains and, with today’s action, the FCC is acting in lock step with our national security agencies to do just that.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
