Standing high jump: machine 2.88 against human 2.45
A humanoid robot cleared 2.88 metres from a standing start at the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games. Overtaq refuses the comparison usually drawn against Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45-metre high jump record: that mark was set with a full run-up and a Fosbury flop over a bar. There is no ratified human standing high jump record, so Overtaq counts no crossover here.
The record in full
| Discipline | Standing high jump ATHLETICS · JUMP |
|---|---|
| What is measured | Height cleared from a standing start, no run-up |
| Human benchmark | 2.45 — Javier Sotomayor, Cuba CUBA · 27 JULY 1993 · SALAMANCA — RUNNING HIGH JUMP WORLD RECORD |
| Machine benchmark | 2.88 — Unnamed humanoid 23 AUGUST 2026 · WORLD HUMANOID ROBOT GAMES, BEIJING |
| Attributed to | X-Humanoid (Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics) CHINA |
| Difference | Machine ahead by 0.43m (17.6%) — Overtaq does not publish this as a comparison; see below. |
| Crossover | No crossover recorded. Overtaq publishes this entry to refuse the comparison, not to make it. |
| Verification status | REPORTED Independently reported |
| Comparability status | NOT COMP. Not directly comparable |
| Overtaq classification | REFUSED The machine and human results measure different things. Overtaq publishes the entry to document the mismatch, and counts no crossover. |
| Data last checked | 23 AUGUST 2026 |
Conditions and comparability
Machine conditions
Standing jump with no run-up, machine-specific event, no governing body.
Why this is not directly comparable
Overtaq publishes this entry to refuse the comparison, not to make it. There is no ratified human standing high jump record, so the number most often placed beside the machine mark is Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45m — set with a full run-up, a curved approach and a Fosbury flop over a bar. The machine jumped from standstill. These are different events. Any headline that subtracts one from the other is wrong, and this page exists so that it can be checked.
Machine progression
2 recorded results. Overtaq keeps every published result rather than only the current best, so the frontier can be read as a history. This table is the full data behind the chart on the interactive record.
| Date | Result | System | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 August 2025 | 0.95m | Unnamed humanoid Multiple teams |
REPORTED NOT COMP. | Best standing jump reported at the first World Humanoid Robot Games. |
| 23 August 2026 | 2.88m | Unnamed humanoid X-Humanoid |
REPORTED NOT COMP. | Threefold improvement in twelve months. Still not a comparable event to the human high jump. |
Evidence
2 sources. Every source is a direct link to the primary record where one exists; where Overtaq has not been able to confirm an exact permanent URL, the entry says so rather than linking to a search page.
- World Athletics — High jump — world records
27 JULY 1993
Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45m running high jump record — cited here as the number commonly misused for comparison.
- Al Jazeera — Robots race, box and fall over at Beijing’s humanoid games
22 AUGUST 2026
The 2.88m standing jump and the 2025 edition’s best mark.
NO EXACT URL — NEEDS MANUAL VERIFICATION
No exact article URL located for the Beijing humanoid games coverage; only the publisher home page could be confirmed.
What is still missing
- The competing machine and operator have not been named in reporting located so far.
- No governing body ratifies a machine standing high jump, so there is no ratified progression to check against.
Social cards
Every record is rendered into four formats in both themes from the same data, so the verification and comparability status travels with the numbers wherever the card is posted.
