Chinese humanoid robot breaks Usain Bolt’s 100m sprint record

During the opening of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, a humanoid robot developed by X-Humanoid completed a 100-meter sprint in 9.39 seconds. This performance surpassed the 9.58-second world record set by Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt in 2009. Footage from the event showed the robot colliding with a cushion to stop at the finish line before being carried away on a stretcher. A separate robot from the same manufacturer also broke the standing high jump record, reaching 2.88 meters, exceeding the 2.45-meter mark set by Cuba's Javier Sotomayor in 1993. The event, now in its second year, features over 2,000 robots and aims to showcase China's advancements in robotics. While some robots achieved record-breaking results, others experienced malfunctions, falls, or caught fire during competition. As China leads in humanoid robot production, the United States has recently moved to ban imports of certain foreign-made robots, citing national security concerns and alleged military ties, specifically targeting companies like Unitree. Beijing has denied these accusations, while experts note that much of the current technology remains focused on demonstrations rather than mass real-world deployment.