# Yiheng Wang

Yiheng Wang (Chinese: 王艺衡; pinyin: Wáng Yìhéng; born 16 December 2013) is a Chinese competitive speedcuber. He currently holds the Rubik's Cube world record average of 4.05 seconds and the fastest single solve of 3.08 seconds. He also holds the 2×2×2 world record average with a time of 0.86 seconds.

## Cubing career

Wang entered his first World Cube Association (WCA) competition in September 2019, at age five. He won his first competition title in January 2021, at age seven. In August 2023, at age nine, he came within 0.01 seconds of winning the 2023 WCA World Championship, finishing in second place behind America's Max Park and just ahead of Poland's Tymon Kolasiński.
On 10 March 2023, at nine years old, Wang set his first 3×3×3 world record average at a competition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a time of 4.69 seconds. The previous record of 4.86 seconds had been held jointly by Max Park and Tymon Kolasiński. Since then, Wang has set six more consecutive records in the event, lowering his time to 4.48, 4.36, 4.25, 4.09 seconds, tying his very own 4.09, then lowering it further to a 4.05.
Wang's global 3×3×3 dominance peaked in December 2024 when he held the 29 all-time fastest average performances, ranging from 4.73 down to 4.05 seconds. He currently holds 68 of the 100 fastest 3×3×3 averages, along with the fastest 3×3×3 single time, at 3.08 seconds.
Wang also holds the 2×2×2 world record average with a time of 0.88 seconds.

## 2×2×2 world record average controversy
### "Sliding" incident

On 22 June 2024 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Wang achieved a world record average of 0.78 seconds on the 2×2×2. The manner in which Wang started the competition-standard StackMat timer drew criticism; frame-by-frame analysis of the solves revealed that Wang had touched or even begun turning the puzzle before lifting his hands off the timer in some of the solves, both of which constitute individual two-second penalties. The technique was dubbed "sliding" as it involves sliding the hands forward to greet the puzzle rather than lifting them up, thus temporarily keeping the timer from starting and recording a faster time. Despite possible evidence of regulation violations from frame-by-frame video analysis, however, only full-speed video analysis was considered valid evidence for penalization, due to a decision from 2019.
On 27 September 2024, the WCA Regulations Committee (WRC), responsible for deciding on such unresolved and uncovered incidents released a joint statement with the WCA Board of Directors on the matter; while the WRC announced that it would now use frame-by-frame analysis in certain cases such as world records, the Board concluded that Wang's solves "could not be conclusively determined to be in violation of the WCA Regulations, policies, and procedures which are in place at the time of the attempt, and cannot be retroactively applied to previous attempts".
On 11 October 2024, the board publicly returned penalization discretion to the WRC. On 25 October 2024, the WRC announced Wang's solves would be retroactively penalized, changing the result from 0.78 to 3.47 and thus partially stripping Wang of the world record title; his second-best average of 0.92 seconds from the same event is identical to the average set by Zayn Khanani of the United States at New Cumberland County 2024, meaning Wang and Khanani had jointly hold the record until 15 December 2024, when Wang achieved an average of 0.86 seconds.