Beijing 2026: the Games where robots beat human world records
2,056 robots, 666 teams, 16 countries. AGIBOT topped the medal table on debut, Tiangong Ultra ran 100m in 8.64 seconds, and the fighting happened in three weight classes.
The World Humanoid Robot Games are only partly a fighting event — combat shares the programme with football, athletics, wushu, weightlifting and tug of war. But they are the biggest stage this sport has, and the second edition, in Beijing from 22 to 26 August 2026, was more than three times the size of the first: 2,056 robots and 666 teams from 16 countries across 51 events.
The fighting is contested as Free Combat, in 40, 58 and 80-kilogram classes; kickboxing permits a human in the loop rather than requiring full autonomy. Per-bout results have so far been published only in the organizer's Chinese-language documents — which is exactly the gap this site exists to close, and we are working through them.
The medal story belonged to AGIBOT, which entered its first Games and left with 18 gold and 46 medals in total, topping both tables. Its titles ran from martial arts to dance to obstacle racing.
The headline, though, ran on a track. Tiangong Ultra, from the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, won the 100 metres in 9.39 seconds on the opening weekend, cut it to 8.86 in a semifinal, and closed the Games at 8.64 — faster than any human being has ever run it. By the closing ceremony, Tiangong machines had beaten four human world records: the 100, the 400, the 1500 and the high jump.
It took sixty years to get from the first industrial robot to one that outsprints Usain Bolt, and about eighteen months to get from robots that could box to robots doing it in front of a stadium. The next Games are going to be worth a plane ticket.