---
title: China Humanoid Robot Beats Usain Bolt 100m Record
description: A Chinese humanoid robot has clocked a 100 metre time quicker than the fastest human being who has ever lived. The number is real. What it proves is consider...
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-08-24T08:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-08-24T09:21:56.742Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/china-humanoid-robot-faster-than-usain-bolt-100m-record
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-close-up-studio-shot-of-a-white-robot-toy-with-led-eyes-rais-8294597.jpg
categories: Artificial Intelligence
content_type: News
region: China
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

A humanoid robot developed by the Chinese smartphone maker Honor has run 100 metres in 9.32 seconds, according to China's state broadcaster, a number faster than the fastest 100 metres any human being has ever run. Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds, set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, has stood as the men's world record for seventeen years. The robot, nicknamed Lightning, beat it by a quarter of a second during a preparatory test ahead of the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which opened in Beijing this weekend, reaching a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second.

## What actually happened, and what did not

The number is genuine and has been reported consistently by Reuters, Al Jazeera, NBC News and China's own CGTN. What it is not is a race. Lightning ran the distance alone, on a track, in a test event, with no human sprinter on an adjacent lane and no attempt to replicate the conditions an Olympic final is run under. Bolt's record was set competing against seven other elite athletes with everything on the line. Lightning's was set against a stopwatch, with engineers free to adjust the machine beforehand to hit the number.

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