Chinese humanoid robots just beat Usain Bolt’s 100m record and the human high-jump record, are humans already losing to machines?

It seems technology is already outrunning humans not only in algorithms but also on the field. At a 100-meter sprint at the Beijing Robot Games, a humanoid robot is said to have beaten the human record of Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt. The robot named Lightning Bolt, achieved a result of 9.39 seconds, beating Bolt’s record of 9.58 seconds, set in 2009, all before smashing into a blue wall.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 also surpassed the human high jump record of 2.45 meters set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993. Both the record-setting robots belonged to Beijing-based X-Humanoid. After smashing into the wall, the robots were placed on a stretcher, unlike Bolt, who was able to jog a lap to celebrate his achievement.More than 2,000 humanoid robots were participating in the event, said the organiser. The five-day games, now in their second year, are a spectacle demonstrating China’s rapid progress in advanced robotics as its tech race with America heats up. There were 51 events organised and more than 1,000 competitions taking place including running, table tennis and soccer.The games are taking place in the National Speed Skating Oval built for the 2022 Winter Olympics and opened the same week as Beijing held the 2026 World Robot Conference, where companies showcased around 3,000 products, including humanoid robots. China makes the majority of the world’s humanoid robots.

The robot named Lightning Bolt, achieved a result of 9.39 seconds, beating Bolt’s record of 9.58 seconds, set in 2009, all before smashing into a blue wall.

On August 22, 2026, at the opening of the robot games, the organiser and robot makers said that the Chinese humanoid robots defeated human world records, as hundreds of humanoid robots marched in formation onto the field in a massive display of synchronised coordination. According to the organiser, 16 countries including Germany, Japan and US are participating in this year’s edition of the games.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.Some spectators at the robot games said they were excited about the humanoid robots’ quickly improving abilities. “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,” said Li Yanfeng, an education worker and a Beijing resident. “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.However, experts say that humanoid robots are still mostly used for demonstrations, performances and research and will still take time to achieve mass real-world deployment.