Severely Autistic Man beats Rubik’s Cube world record

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A young man from Cerritos, California, has beaten the world record for the fastest time to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

Max Park, 21, unscrambled a 3x3x3 cube in just 3.13 seconds at a World Cube Association event in Long Beach, California, on June 11.

Park has been competing in Rubik’s competitions since he was 10 years old — and has defied the odds as a fierce competitor who also has severe autism.

Park was diagnosed with autism at just 2 years old, his father said, and as a small child, he "always had issues" with finger strength.

When her son was 9 years old, Miki Park, Max's mom, introduced him to the Rubik’s Cube, which she believed might improve her son’s fine motor skills.

Park took to the puzzle immediately, his father shared, picking up the method "really quickly. He just seemed to have a natural skill for this, to learn really quickly how to solve the cube and understand what Miki was teaching him."

The boy's natural talent blossomed, as did his social skills, as he began entering cubing competitions, his father said.

Park has since made a name for himself in the cubing community after winning both the World Rubik’s Cube Championship in 2017 and the Red Bull Rubik's Cube World Cup in 2021.

The young competitor was also featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary, "The Speed Cubers."

Park will be attending CubingUSA Nationals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the end of July — and then will take off for Rubik's WCA World Championship in South Korea a few weeks later.

"[Max] loves to travel and visit other places," his father said. "That's something that he really, really loves and cherishes about cubing, as well as meeting friends who are cubers from many different countries."