Chinese Robot Beats Usain Bolt’s 100m World Record

Bolt’s great record stood so long,
Until a robot proved it wrong.
Nine-point-three-nine down the track—
Machines now set the sprinting pack.

A Chinese humanoid robot named Tiangong Ultra completed 100 meters in 9.39 seconds during a preliminary heat at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, surpassing Usain Bolt’s long-standing human record of 9.58 seconds.

Record-Breaking Performance

Developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, Tiangong Ultra overtook rival robot Lightning near the finish line. Lightning itself clocked 9.47 seconds, also faster than Bolt’s mark set in 2009. The improvement from last year’s winning time of 21.50 seconds underscores rapid advances in bipedal robotics.

Event Context

More than 2,000 robots from hundreds of teams are competing in the five-day games, which include sprinting, soccer, industrial tasks and other challenges. Organizers designed the event to showcase progress in artificial intelligence and hardware mobility.

Technical Progress

Engineers have refined leg design, balance algorithms and power systems to achieve higher speeds. While the robots still struggle with graceful stops, the pure sprint times demonstrate how quickly machine performance is closing gaps once thought exclusive to human athletes.