A humanoid robot has beaten Usain Bolt’s men’s 100-meter world record at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. Tiangong Ultra finished the race in 8.86 seconds, passing Bolt’s 9.58-second mark set in 2009.
The result came on August 25, 2026, at Beijing’s Olympic speed skating arena. Tiangong Ultra did not finish cleanly, though. After crossing the line, the robot fell, and sparks flew from its waist.
A Record That Fell Three Days Later
Tiangong Ultra had already set a record at the opening of the games on August 22. The humanoid robot completed the 100-meter dash in 9.39 seconds, a time that stood for only three days before the same model broke it with an 8.86-second run.
That first 9.39-second performance was already faster than Bolt’s 9.58-second human record. The new time widened the gap, putting Tiangong Ultra 0.72 seconds ahead of the mark Bolt set in 2009.
The robot’s speed also carried over to a longer race. Tiangong Ultra finished the 400-meter event in 38.16 seconds, a result later revised to 38.15 seconds. The two performances show the robot competing across both sprint distances at the games.
But the fall after the 100-meter finish made the achievement more complicated than a simple comparison of times. A robot can cross the line first and still face the hard problem of staying upright when the race ends.
Why Bipedal Speed Is So Difficult
Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA, described the 8.86-second run as a major step for bipedal robots. “This is a significant milestone — not simply because the robot ran faster than a human, but because of what it takes to make a bipedal robot run at this speed,” Hong said.
Running on two legs demands more than moving them forward. “As speed increases, balance, control, impacts, actuator performance and mechanical robustness all become much more challenging,” Hong said.
That challenge was visible at the finish. Tiangong Ultra’s fall and the sparks from its waist showed that setting a record involves more than producing a fast time. The robot also has to handle the forces created by speed, impacts and the sudden end of motion.
The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center developed Tiangong Ultra. Honor, a smartphone maker, is also identified among the robot manufacturers connected with the event, which gives the games a broad technology focus beyond the single record-setting machine.
A Large Competition Built Around Humanoid Robots
The World Humanoid Robot Games are in their second year in Beijing, and the event is much larger than one race. The games feature over 1,300 competitions involving more than 2,000 robots across 51 events.
That scale places Tiangong Ultra’s sprint inside a wider test of humanoid machines. Still, the 100-meter dash is easy to understand: one robot, one finish line and a time that can be compared with the best human mark.
Hou Yali offered a reminder not to read too much into the result. “Right now, this is just running, just a competition of speed. It’s not a test of intelligence, or hiring someone to do household tasks or act as live-in help,” Yali said.
That distinction matters because a fast race does not answer questions about what humanoid robots can do outside competition. The 8.86-second result measures speed, while the fall highlights the limits that can surface when a robot pushes its body to that pace.
For now, Tiangong Ultra owns the headline numbers: 8.86 seconds for the 100-meter dash, 9.39 seconds for its earlier record and 38.15 seconds in the revised 400-meter result. It also beat Bolt’s 9.58-second record, making the Beijing games a clear marker in the race to build faster bipedal robots.
Based on
- The Humanoids at China’s Robot Games Were Faster Than Usain Bolt—but I’m More Impressed by Their Tweezer Mastery — wired.com
- Chinese humanoid robot that beat Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint record does it again, but even faster — nbcnews.com
- Humanoid robot breaks Usain Bolt’s 100m record in China – France 24 — france24.com
