How’s this robot’s street dance? Think it can take the title?

The humanoid Olympics are back: 2,056 robots, five days of racing, fighting, football—and actual work. 🤖🏅 The 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games just opened in Beijing: 666 teams from 16 countries, competing across 51 events. Last year had just 26. The speed jump is already ridiculous. Robots are now running the 100 m in the low-9-second range, while Tien Kung Ultra reached 2.88 m in the standing high jump. But the viral sports clips aren’t what I’m watching most. This year, autonomy matters a lot more. The 400 m, 1,500 m and relays are fully autonomous, while the 21 scenario events test robots on factory work, rescue, household tasks and dexterous manipulation. Teleoperated runs only get 0.5× scoring weight. That’s the part that makes this year much more interesting than 2025. Fast running gets attention. Staying autonomous through long, messy, real-world tasks tells us much more about which robots are actually getting closer to real deployment.