A Chinese humanoid robot named Lightning completed a 100-meter practice race in 9.32 seconds, beating Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's 9.58-second human world record. According to Chinese media, the robot reached a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second during a preparatory test event for the second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on August 22, 2026.

Another humanoid robot completed a 100-meter sprint in 9.39 seconds at the opening ceremony of the games. Lightning was developed by the Chinese smartphone maker Honor.

Upgrades Before the Race

Lightning had previously won the Beijing half-marathon in April with a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the human world record. At that time, the robot stood 169 centimeters tall and had 95-centimeter legs. Before the World Humanoid Robot Games, researchers lengthened Lightning's legs by 10 centimeters to 1.05 meters.

The five-day World Humanoid Robot Games featured more than 2,000 participating humanoid robots, with 51 events and over 1,000 competitions. In addition to running, the games included events such as table tennis, soccer, weightlifting, and tug-of-war.

Surpassing Human Feats

During the games, another humanoid robot from Beijing-based X-Humanoid achieved a standing high jump of 2.88 meters. This result surpassed the human high jump record of 2.45 meters set by Cuba's Javier Sotomayor in 1993, and was well above the 0.95-meter best result by a humanoid in the first edition of the games.

China has been promoting humanoid robots as a strategic emerging industry, with policymakers and companies betting that advances in AI and hardware will accelerate their deployment. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission recently announced a ban on imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots, citing national security reasons. Experts note that while humanoid robots have shown significant progress, they are still mostly used for demonstrations and research, and real-world deployment will take time.