Chinese humanoid robots beat human sprint and jump records in Beijing
Chinese humanoid robots broke human world athletic records in the 100-metre sprint and standing high jump on Saturday at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, according to the Associated Press.
Source: Associated Press · August 23, 2026 at 2:21 PM · AI-assisted report
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BEIJING, 23 AUGUST 2026 —
Chinese humanoid robots broke human world athletic records in the 100-metre sprint and standing high jump on Saturday at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, according to the Associated Press.
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A robot built by Beijing-based X-Humanoid ran the 100-metre sprint in 9.39 seconds, beating the human world record of 9.58 seconds set by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt in 2009. Another X-Humanoid machine cleared 2.88 metres in the standing high jump, passing the 2.45-metre human record set by Cuba's Javier Sotomayor in 1993 and beating the 0.95-metre mark set by a robot at the event's inaugural edition last year.
A humanoid robot from Chinese smartphone maker Honor also clocked 9.32 seconds at a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during a pre-games trial, the company said.
More than 2,000 humanoid robots from 16 countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan, entered the five-day event, organizers said. The competition features 51 events and over 1,000 contests, including table tennis, soccer, weightlifting and tug of war.
The games ran alongside the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, where manufacturers displayed roughly 3,000 products.
China produces the majority of the world's humanoid robots, drawing heightened scrutiny from Washington as competition in advanced technologies accelerates. The US Federal Communications Commission banned imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots last month on national security grounds. The Pentagon also placed Chinese robotics manufacturer Unitree on its list of entities alleged to have ties to the Chinese military, a claim Beijing denies.
Spectators at the National Speed Skating Oval, which previously hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics, pointed to the speed of technical improvements.
"At first, I wasn't very accepting of artificial intelligence," said Li Yanfeng, a Beijing education worker attending the games. "I was even a bit resistant to it, because of the possibility that it might replace or displace humans. But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look."
Another spectator, Yang Shangzheng, said the athletic feats showed machines managing activities once exclusive to humans.
Industry experts cited by AP noted that humanoid robots remain confined largely to research, demonstrations and performances, with mass commercial deployment still requiring further technical progress.
Related: X-Humanoid · National Speed Skating Oval · Beijing