Chinese Robot Runs 100m in 9.39 Seconds, Faster Than Bolt's Human Record

BEIJING, CHINA — Tiangong Ultra beat the time of Usain Bolt's 100m world record, but the robot race is separate from human athletics and does not replace Bolt's mark.

A Chinese humanoid robot completed 100 metres in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, covering the distance faster than the 9.58-second world record Usain Bolt set for human athletes in 2009.

The performance by Tiangong Ultra came during a 100m large-robot preliminary race at the National Speed Skating Oval on August 22. Reuters reported that another humanoid, Honor's Lightning, finished in 9.47 seconds, meaning two machines in the race posted times below Bolt's mark.

The comparison is striking, but it requires an important qualification: Tiangong Ultra did not break the World Athletics men's 100m world record. The 9.39-second result was achieved by a machine in a humanoid-robot competition governed by different rules and physical conditions. Bolt's 9.58 remains the recognized men's world record in athletics.

Tiangong Ultra was 0.19 seconds quicker than Bolt's time

Bolt ran 9.58 seconds at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, with a legal tailwind of 0.9 metres per second. World Athletics continues to list the Jamaican first on the men's all-time 100m rankings.

Tiangong Ultra's 9.39-second performance was therefore 0.19 seconds lower on the clock — about 2% less time over the same nominal distance.

That numerical comparison does not make the two performances equivalent sporting records. World Athletics governs competition among human athletes under athletics rules covering matters including timing, wind and competition conditions. The Beijing event instead measures the capabilities of humanoid machines.

The robot competition also has its own categories. Chinese reporting from the event identified the race as the 100m large-robot group, for machines more than 1.4 metres tall. Tiangong Ultra raced against other robots rather than human sprinters.

The robot ran autonomously

One of the most consequential details is that the 100m event was designed around autonomous operation rather than a human remotely steering the machine through every movement.

Beijing's municipal government said before the Games that the 100m competition had been upgraded for fully autonomous robots. Organizers have increasingly used the Games to test not only mechanical power but also perception, navigation, decision-making and motion control.

China National Radio reported after the opening that multiple competitive events this year eliminated manual remote control and required autonomous operation.

That distinction gives the 9.39-second run greater technological significance than a simple motor-speed demonstration. A humanoid robot moving at sprint speed must coordinate its joints, maintain balance, determine its path and repeatedly recover stability as its feet strike the surface.

The limits were also visible. Reuters reported that both leading robots had difficulty stopping after crossing the finish, with Tiangong stumbling into the sideline area and Lightning collapsing after the race.

From 21.50 seconds to 9.39 in one year

The scale of the improvement may be more significant for robotics than the comparison with Bolt.

At the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games in 2025, Tiangong Ultra won the 100m in 21.50 seconds. Its 2026 performance cut more than 12 seconds from that time. CNR and Reuters both reported the year-on-year improvement.

The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center has attributed the progress to changes spanning both hardware and software. Chinese reporting based on information from the center described more powerful joint motors, changes to the robot's physical configuration and aerodynamics, improved heat management and algorithms optimized for high-speed running and autonomous navigation.

The 9.39-second performance may not remain the fastest figure associated with the machines for long. Reuters reported that Lightning had recorded 9.32 seconds during a preparatory test before the Games, although that was not the competition result being compared with Bolt's official human mark.

Beijing's robot games test more than speed

The second World Humanoid Robot Games run from August 22 through August 26 at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval. Organizers registered 666 teams and 2,056 robots for 51 events, up sharply from the inaugural competition.

The program extends well beyond track races. Competitive and scenario-based events are designed to test capabilities ranging from football and dance to tasks connected with hotels, factories, retail environments and emergency response.

That broader program matters because running faster than a human is a specialized engineering achievement, while commercially useful humanoid robots must perform less spectacular tasks reliably, safely and repeatedly in unpredictable environments.

The 100m competition is still developing. Chinese reporting on the event schedule said 40 teams were entered across nine preliminary groups, with later rounds scheduled before the Games conclude on August 26. The 9.39-second result should therefore be treated as a verified competition performance — and a dramatic comparison with human sprinting — rather than as the final word on how fast the 2026 robots can run.