Chinese Humanoid Robot Smashes Usain Bolt’s 100m Dash World Record in 9.39 Seconds [WATCH]

A Chinese humanoid robot raced beyond Usain Bolt’s celebrated 100-meter mark during a major robotics showcase filled with running, soccer, boxing and dancing.

The record fell on Saturday, the opening day of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.

Bolt, the Jamaican sprinting star, set his 100 meter record of 9.58 seconds in 2009.

At the games, a Beijing robot called Lightning Bolt completed the same distance in 9:39 seconds before crashing directly into a blue wall.

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Another humanoid had already delivered an even faster performance before the opening.

Chinese smartphone company Honor said its robot completed a 100-meter trial in 9.32 seconds and reached a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second.

The robotic sprinters could move at extraordinary speed, but stopping proved to be another matter.

Staff members placed the machines on stretchers after they crashed into the blue cushioned wall, while Bolt had been able to jog a celebratory lap after his 2009 achievement.

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The exhibition race featured a Lightning humanoid robot by Honor and a Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot.

They competed during the opening ceremony for the second World Humanoid Robot Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Aug. 22, 2026.

Now in its second year, the World Humanoid Robot Games features more than 2,000 robots across 51 events and 1,000 competitions.

The five day gathering includes running, table tennis and soccer while highlighting China’s rapid advances in robotics during its heated technology race with the U.S.

The National Speed Skating Oval was constructed for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The robot games opened during the same week that Beijing hosted the 2026 World Robot Conference, where companies displayed around 3,000 products, including humanoid robots.

The machines also delivered a striking result in the standing high jump.

One humanoid reached 2.88 meters, soaring beyond the 0.95 meter best result achieved by a humanoid during the first edition of the games last year.

That 2.88 meter result also surpassed the human high jump record of 2.45 meters.

Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor set that record in 1993.

Spectators said the robots’ quickly improving capabilities left them excited.

Li Yanfeng, an education worker and Beijing resident, said humanoid robots are “evolving rapidly.”

Li also described how her view of the technology had changed as its development continued. “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.”

Another spectator, Yang Shangzheng, focused on how the machines were mastering activities that people routinely perform.

“These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing,” Yang said.

Liu Tao attended the games with his son and said he hoped to see “the best robots China currently has to offer.”

Beyond the headline-grabbing races and jumps, this year’s program also includes events such as weightlifting and tug of war.

The organizer said 16 countries are participating in the robot games, including Germany, Japan, and the U.S.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has increased scrutiny of robots from China, which produces the majority of the world’s humanoid robots.

President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission 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.”

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FCC Chair Brendan Carr welcomed the move in a statement last month.

“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,” Carr wrote.

“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 lockstep with our national security agencies to do just that.”

The event paired record-setting performances with dramatic crashes, giving spectators a view of both the remarkable speed and the remaining limitations of humanoid machines.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.

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