TLDR
Honor's humanoid robot Lightning clocked 9.32 seconds over 100 metres at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, clearing Usain Bolt's human record of 9.58 seconds. Lightning also beat the men's half-marathon record earlier in 2026, showing how quickly China's strategic robotics program is moving.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A two-legged robot has run 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt. At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, a machine called Lightning, built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor, clocked 9.32 seconds, inside Bolt's 9.58 human world record, after an earlier heat of 9.39. Its peak speed touched 14.5 metres a second.[1]
The comparison flatters the machine a little: robots race in their own lanes against the clock, without reaction times, lane draws or the wind rules that govern human sprinting. But the speed is real, and it is not a one-off. The same machine beat the men's half-marathon record earlier this year, finishing in 50 minutes 26 seconds.[2]
The point is not the podium
The games, running from 22 to 26 August with 51 events and more than 1,000 competitions, are a shop window for China's humanoid robotics industry, which Beijing has made a national priority alongside chips and batteries. A phone maker fielding the fastest legs in the world says how broad that push has become.[3] For Australia, which imports nearly all of its robotics, the games are a preview of who will be selling the machines that arrive in local warehouses and mines within the decade.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
Takeshi Mori writes about technology and start-ups. He is curious about how products get built and who they are really for, and he would rather see a thing working than hear it described.
