A 21-year-old broke the Rubik’s Cube record Sunday using his lightning-quick hands and brain.
Max Park of the United States solved a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube in 3.13 seconds during a Pride event in Long Beach, California, according to Guinness World Records.
Rubik’s Cube 3×3 World Record (3.13) breaking 4.5 year old record of (3.47) #thecubicle #rubiks #spinmaster #thespeedcubers #netflix pic.twitter.com/iNDfwqCLT8
— Max Park (@maxfast23) June 12, 2023
Park, who previously held the second-place spot on the leaderboard with a time of 3.63 seconds, beat Chinese cuber Yusheng Du’s 2018 record by 0.34 seconds.
Park holds several other speedcubing records, including the single solve and average solve world records for the 4x4x4 cube, 5x5x5 cube, 6x6x6 cube and 7x7x7 cube. When he set the 7x7x7 single record of 1 minute 40 seconds, speedcuber Erik Akkersdijk predicted the record would “likely stand for some time.” Akkersdijk was wrong. Park beat his own 7x7x7 record in 2022 with a time of 1 minute 35 seconds.
He also used to share the 3x3x3 average record with Poland’s Tymon Kolasiński at 4.86. That is, until China’s Yiheng Wang, a 9-year-old prodigy, seized the throne by solving the puzzle in 4.69 seconds. Average times are generally calculated by having the competitor solve a cube three times, disregarding the fastest and slowest times an averaging the remaining three. (RELATED: Australian Blake Johnston Breaks Record For Longest Surf Session)
Park has been diagnosed with autism, and his parents describe cubing as “good therapy” for their son.
“There was a time when Max couldn’t even open water bottles, but he showed an interest in solving Rubik’s cubes,” Park’s parents said.
Park is an official ambassador for Rubik’s and is featured in Netflix’s documentary “The Speed Cubers.”