Chinese humanoid robots clock 9.32 seconds in 100-meter sprint at Beijing Games

Sprint and track results

Humanoid robots developed by Chinese robotics firms recorded times faster than human world records on the opening day of the second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. In the 100-meter sprint, the Tien Kung robot, built by Beijing-based manufacturer X-Humanoid, finished a three-competitor race in 9.39 seconds. That mark was faster than Usain Bolt's human world record of 9.58 seconds established in Berlin in 2009, though mechanical braking difficulties damaged the machine after crossing the finish line. In earlier pre-event trials broadcast by state media, smartphone company Honor evaluated its Lightning robot, which completed the 100-meter distance in 9.32 seconds at a top speed of 14.5 meters per second. In the 400-meter race, Tien Kung finished in 37.71 seconds, below the human world record of 43.03 seconds established by South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk.

High jump and endurance benchmarks

Performance increases also appeared across vertical jumping and long-distance categories. In the standing high jump, Tien Kung cleared 2.88 meters, surpassing the human world record of 2.45 meters set by Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayor in 1993. The height represented an increase over the 0.95 meters recorded by robots during the inaugural edition of the games in 2025. In April, Honor's Lightning completed a 21-kilometer half-marathon in Beijing in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating the human mark of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Jacob Kiplimo at the Lisbon Half Marathon in March. To optimize Lightning for sprint speed after the endurance run, researchers lengthened the robot's legs by 10 centimeters from its earlier 95-centimeter configuration on a 1.69-meter chassis.

Tournament scale and technology exhibits

The five-day athletic meeting is hosted at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, the facility constructed for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Organization officials reported that more than 2,000 humanoid robots are taking part in 51 events across more than 1,000 competitions. The program spans athletics, table tennis, and soccer matches, alongside displays of bionic machines performing utilitarian tasks. Exhibited functions included cooking moon cakes under remote human control, throwing darts, driving screws, and operating as riot control units trained on real-world datasets. The competition opened in the same week as the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, where more than 300 companies exhibited approximately 3,000 robotic systems and hardware components.

Commercial deployment and international scrutiny

Humanoid units currently operate primarily in research, exhibition, and demonstration settings, with widespread commercial deployment still facing technical hurdles. China manufactures the majority of humanoid robots worldwide, drawing increased regulatory scrutiny from the United States. In July 2026, the United States Federal Communications Commission announced an import prohibition on new foreign-manufactured humanoid robots, citing national security reasons. In addition, the United States Department of Defense added Unitree, a prominent Chinese humanoid manufacturer, to its list of firms considered to have military ties.