Unitree wins the first world humanoid games.

I'll put you in context.

It's not a human seen by thousands closing the 15 meters on a track, it's a humanoid robot at the premiere of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, Unitree dominated the track and became a headline by transforming a demonstration into measured performance.

There were 280 teams from 16 countries in 26 modalities, the Unitree H1 won the 400 m, 1500 m, 100 m hurdles and the 4x100, adding 11 medals in total, four gold, the highest speed recorded in testing reached 4.78 meters per second and the company claimed to have exceeded 5 m per second in internal tests.

X-Humanoid also shone with 10 medals and gold in the 100 m and in materials handling

Results that explain the podium.

The H1 uses the M107 articulated motor with 360 Nm of torque, which is the turning force, allowing longer strides and stronger starts, the whole body control decides where, how each foot touches the ground to maintain traction and regain balance under pushes, on the other hand, the T1 from X-Humanoid already won a half marathon in April and has stable operation without assistance.

And how does this work? Think of three layers working together, light and rigid mechanics so as not to waste energy, powerful actuators to push the ground with each step and a controller that adjusts the body in milliseconds, it is athletics translated into engineering, stability, timing and useful strength.

What enables this technology in practice? If you run fast without falling, you tend to walk better in a warehouse, climb loaded stairs, cross wet ramps and endure shifts without fatigue, with the robotics market projected to be around $400 billion through 2029 with China leading almost half, this points to more useful and less showroom units.

It is an inaugural event.

Many tests still depend on teleoperation, that is, remote control, 24x7 autonomy with functional security, energy, robust perception and zero collections, it is still the next step, the competition does not replicate all the disorder of the real world, the next edition scheduled for August 2026 plans to show consistency off the track.