Humanoid robot runs 100m faster than Usain Bolt's human record

sportsAug 22, 202632924

At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing a humanoid built by the Beijing Innovation Centre of Humanoid Robotics ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds, faster than Usain Bolt's human world record of 9.58 seconds set in 2009. State media reported the robot reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second. The BBC says the machine beat two other entrants and that Chinese smartphone maker Honor said one of its robots ran 100 metres in 9.32 seconds in a test run. More than 2,000 humanoid robots are competing at the Beijing event, which includes tests such as boxing, football and household tasks like folding laundry. Organizers present the Games as an Olympics-like showcase of China's robotics advances; the sprint result highlights how quickly legged humanoid locomotion has improved from robots that once struggled to finish short races.

alexis simpson

@amutepiggy.bsky.social

saw a reddit post that was like "a humanoid robot beat usain bolt's 100m dash record" and it's like ??? oh wow man a fuckin machine did a physical feat better than a person oooooo woooow fuck off i don't care

25745d ago

alexis simpson78

did u know, cars beat usain bolt's record, every single day

cait (and adonis)34

calculator beats man doing math by hand, alert the presses

Catbus28

holy shit a car is faster than a person, have you heard this? is anyone talking about this??

jesse13

but they'll never invent a machine that can lift more than a man! I guarantee!

Jeff Mac11

Pretty sure my Honda Fit could beat Usain Bolt’s record too

daryl "our age of hons is collapsing" b 🏳️‍⚧️10

I bet you could totally smash that record in a car too

Quoting this

Simon Little 🍁72

Motorcycle DESTROYS Tour de France record

S.J. Moomaw3

“Hydraulic press sets new world record in weightlifting.”

mtsw

@mtsw.bsky.social

an underrated reason that the tech oligarchs are so invested in the humanoid robot space is that they have sick fantasies about having apocalypse bunkers with harems of women but can't solve the "bane problem" www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C_B...

19045d ago

mtsw100

for a while they would float elaborate schemes with BATTLE ROYALE-style exploding collars but the armed humanoid robot thing is a much more straightforward solution for their sick desires to enslave human beings without risking being overthrown by jocks.

🅒🅗🅡🅘🅢 🍫 🍫 🍫 🤯6

Not your point but man rises was so much weaker than TDK but this “do you feel in charge” scene was such an extremely good moment

Nicholas Slayton4

I did like how UNDER THE SILVER LAKE implied that the billionaires with their harems and bunkers would just starve and go insane and die while trapped there.

Krinn DNZ4

Always thinking of the Rushkoff bit about "How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?" (I should read the book he spun out of this) onezero.medium.com/survival-of-...

Andrew MF Reynolds2

I have extremely mixed feelings about this movie and this is the one moment i keep coming back to and saying "yeah that fuckin ruled"

Mecha-Herz1

The human race needs to have a very strong, collective immune response to attempts to robotic policing and crowd control or I fear our species may be in for a very, very grim future.

Unusual Whales

@unusualwhales.bsky.social

BREAKING: A humanoid robot developed by China’s Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds, beating the human world record held by Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt, per Reuters

6845d ago

A normal man31

My car can go faster than that

Magma Doctor5

A human on a bike can go faster than that and doesn’t need a motor or a computer

Patrick4

Couldn’t step up on the podium though.

ravenswyng.bsky.social3

It didn't beat Bolt's record because Bolt's is for the fastest human. It didn't even beat the 100-metre speed record for a machine: WHICH IT IS.

JessC3

looks like they're coming for the athlete's jobs too.

Lee Gee2

Surely this is just so they can bring me my beer really fast 👍

Quoting this

NBABeau17

I believe machines built by BMW, Porsche, and even Kia are faster than Usain Bolt too

Coronel Cocos10

Eine Maschine ist schneller als ein Mensch, waow.

BadToss6

I would like to make the word "humanoid" illegal.

Ashley5

So do my cats and they don’t spark..usually

Tantz Aerine 🇨🇦🇬🇷4

Calculator performs math calculations faster than human.

Ryan Wilson4

Then it ran straight into a brick wall and caught fire.

John Byrne3

Can I get grifter money if I come out as anti clankers in sports?

Dan2

This is what those losers who started The Enhanced Games thought would happen.

Daniel Ahmad

@zhugeex.com

For those unaware, the World Humanoid Robot Games is currently ongoing in Beijing where over 2,000 robots are competing across 51 events. It’s basically a way to benchmark / stress test current performance levels.

7745d ago

Daniel Ahmad77

I still don’t get why a Tennis robot wouldn’t just be on wheels / a moving platform or something, but this is still technically impressive given where humanoid robots were just two years ago.

roscone8

I was not ready for that thing to jump that high

Kamiten, Cursed Feral Clown1

So it's kind of like the Le Mans of Robotics?

Moises1

Incredible!! They are almost reaching Super Mario jumps levels

Quoting this

Greg Pak70

gimme a baseball bat and let’s DO THIS

Tyler King26

Isn’t Elon’s Optimus basically still just a guy in a suit?

Fabio Santana5

Just a bit more until we have real-life Power Spikes II: youtu.be/aPlo5xbur2k

Sodslawyer

@sodslawyer.bsky.social

I see that a robot has run 100m in a faster time than the record for a human, held by Usain Bolt. Ok if we’re going down that route, I can - and have - run 100m faster than a courgette has ever done.

4845d ago

Angela3

I certainly don’t want to be chased by one of those things while it’s wielding a weapon 😱

Liz2

Have you seen how fast courgettes grow? Flower to marrow in days.

Tom Irwin

@tomirwin.bsky.social

I don't get why this matters? Humans make loads of things that move faster than humans. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/a...

4745d ago

A-34405

Exactly what I thought when I heard this. It was presented on BBC as robot “breaks Bolt’s world record”. But surely the world record only applies to humans, so it hasn’t.

Laura2

So what? Human endeavour will always beat a machine, regardless of how that machine performs. Computers can tabulate faster than mathematicians. Yet we are still awed by unusual feats of human prowess.

altNOAA 🇺🇸

@altnoaa.bsky.social

"A Chinese humanoid robot ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds in a preliminary heat at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday, faster than the men's world record held by Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt." Maybe we can stop with the clumsy jokes. These are war machines.

2645d ago

altNOAA 🇺🇸10

Of course, it's going to be the rolling ones that are going to be the worst. In the words of Ahoska: "Rolling death balls!"

SCOM⛅️

@scomputer.fun

BREAKING NEWS WHOA: they just built an robot that’s faster than Usain Bolt! EVEN MORE BREAKING NEWS: yeah dumbass! it’s called a car!

2345d ago

Chris⚖️Justice

@chrisjustice01.bsky.social

🤖 2K Humanoid robots competed in various events on day one of the World Robot Games (China), with one even breaking Usain Bolt's world record in the 100 meter sprint. abcnews.com/Technology/w...

1044d ago

Robin Herbert3

No. They didn't break Usain Bolt's world record any more than I did driving my car today.

I'm Lyekka3

I will kill a robot before I die, I will.

Sweet Pea🙇🏾‍♀️🧚🏾🧝🏾‍♀️👸🏾1

Humanity is not going to be satisfied until we are living the plot of a sci-fi screenplay.

Running Dog

@runningdog.bsky.social

My dog’s run 500m in under 30 seconds many times, do we get a medal www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/a...

1445d ago

John Walker - Industry Analcyst

@botherer.bsky.social

These people excited that the robot ran faster than Usain Bolt are going to LOSE THEIR MINDS when they find out about cars.

1845d ago

Amity G.4

Get with the times granddad. Us young stallions have already moved on to trains.

Frühlingsopfer

@pille.bsky.social

„Roboter schneller als Usain Bolt“ bro ein AUTO ist literally auch schneller als Usain Bolt ??

1545d ago

James Andrew Smith

@drsmith.bsky.social

Bingo. Legged locomotion engineer here — name me a task that you dream of a humanoid robot doing and I’ll find an alternative automaton that will do faster, cheaper and better.

1145d ago

Lisan al-Gabe

@cyberstalin.bsky.social

oh wow a robot ran faster than usain bolt. cars run faster than humans. thats not impressive to me. the reason its impressive that usain bolt does it is because hes a person. hope that helps

1445d ago

Lord Jeffrey of Nottingham #FBPE 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 🇬🇱

@onemoregoodman.bsky.social

So what? This is like saying a motorbike or a car could go faster than Usain Bolt. It’s a machine, not a person.

1245d ago

3 sources

aljazeera.comUsain Bolt’s 100m record broken at World Humanoid Robot Games bbc.comWatch: Moment robot beats Usain Bolt's 100m record in China nbcnews.comMove over, Usain Bolt: Humanoid robots smash human records at Beijing games

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Humanoid robot runs 100m faster than Usain Bolt's human record

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