A humanoid robot ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds, faster than Usain Bolt
Tiangong Ultra, built by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, ran the 100 meters in 9.39 seconds in a preliminary heat at the second World Humanoid Robot Games on August 22, 2026. Usain Bolt's world record is 9.58 seconds, set in Berlin in 2009. Honor's Lightning finished second at 9.47 seconds, also under the record. At the first edition of the games a year earlier, the same machine ran 21.50 seconds. The robots stopped by hitting stacked foam pads and some were carried off on stretchers.