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A humanoid robot clocked 9.39 seconds in the 100-metre sprint at Beijing’s World Humanoid Robot Games, beating Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second world record. The event, running from August 22 to 26, features 2,056 robots from 16 countries across 51 sporting and real-world competitions, highlighting rapid advances in humanoid robotics.

Beijing is currently hosting the second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG), an event being billed as the world's first Olympic-style sporting competition built exclusively for humanoid robots. Running from August 22 to 26 at the National Speed Skating Oval, the Games have drawn robots that are now completing sprints faster than Usain Bolt's world record - turning what began as a novelty demonstration a year ago into a genuine marker of how fast humanoid robotics is advancing.

What exactly are the world humanoid robot games?

The WHRG is described by its organisers as the world's first comprehensive science and technology sports event with humanoid robots as the primary competitors. The Games are co-hosted by the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, China Media Group, the World Robot Cooperation Organisation, and the RoboCup Asia-Pacific Confederation Board of Trustees, according to the event's official listing on RoboCup's website.

Robots compete across two broad categories - traditional sporting events such as track and field, football, martial arts, and gymnastics, and real-world scenario tasks such as hotel services, industrial assembly, medicine sorting, and emergency rescue simulations. The organisers describe the format as 'sports plus art plus application', designed to test not just physical athleticism but the practical, everyday capabilities robots would need to function alongside humans.