The 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games are being held in Beijing this week, a competition that sees robots compete in track-and-field-style events.

It’s created some head-turning results: Usain Bolt’s 100m 9.58-second world record has been defeated twice by robots called Lightning (9.47 seconds) and Tiangong Ultra (9.39 seconds).

Those results are particularly impressive given that last year’s game saw the robots run a time of over 20 seconds in the 100m event. However, unlike Bolt, the humanoids struggled to slow down after crossing the line.

Robot training for the ‘Robot Olympics’ ran too fast, slams into the wall, and breaks at the waist 🤖 pic.twitter.com/XagN4qFYHY

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) August 20, 2026

According to Reuters, the games have been heavily promoted by Chinese state media. As well as Olympics-style events, there are other challenges: serving food, EV charging, industrial assembly, emergency incident handling, a cable connection challenge, and more.

There’s no photo shoot challenge yet, but it’s clear that China is flexing its robotic muscles as it seeks to be the leader in autonomous technology.

But as this series of amusing bloopers from this year’s robot games shows, the humanoid robots can’t yet be fully trusted. So let’s enjoy the robots falling flat on their faces — while we still can.

This robot buckled under the weight.

Then started spamming errors. pic.twitter.com/JQpxX9g3vm

— clankr (@clankrmedia) August 24, 2026

🔥 Crash Course In Robotics:
Humanoid Loses Control Mid-Race And Hits The Ground In A Shower Of Sparks https://t.co/OUdkaoHvF5 pic.twitter.com/NN3qNOTP58

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 23, 2026

Another epic fail from World Robot Games.

The robot just went flying into a full-on flip. pic.twitter.com/UDoh3JZvAO

— clankr (@clankrmedia) August 23, 2026

At the China Robot Sports Competition, a robot kept veering off course and eventually collapsed. pic.twitter.com/mbCcRfBxCd

— Karl (@karlmajin) August 23, 2026

These are some of the things you should NOT do. pic.twitter.com/RoOgiLBW4j

— World Humanoid Robot Games (@WHRGFUN) August 24, 2026

Chinese MMA robot knocks itself out attempting a tornado kick at the World Humanoid Robot Games pic.twitter.com/pzfa6LDYCl

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) August 23, 2026

This video from the Beijing Robot Olympics will never be shown again. A humanoid robot tried to perform a famous soccer trick before warm-ups, but it had robo-convulsions

It planted, swung its legs up for the trick, and then just seized up mid air. Full body spasm, arms locked,… https://t.co/EsHfjvvKI2 pic.twitter.com/hKLFtgjd9E

— Zentrix⌚️ (@ZentrixHQ) August 25, 2026

Please, we kindly ask you not to give the robots any alcohol before the event starts. 😂 pic.twitter.com/S4qQHrVNWe

— World Humanoid Robot Games (@WHRGFUN) August 24, 2026

Does this robot need a timeout, or a reboot?

During the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, a humanoid robot was filmed flat on its back, frantically kicking its legs in what looks exactly like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

This is a live example of a technical glitch.… pic.twitter.com/FiR7xtReSU

— Cybernews (@Cybernews) August 20, 2026