The Rio de Janeiro Olympics kick off on August 5 for some two weeks of competitive games drawing athletes as well as audiences from around the world. As they prepare to cover the event, Reuters photographers look back on their favourite pictures from past Olympics where they captured the action on the ground as well as the participants' tears and joy that followed. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Praia du Forte, Bahia. “This was the lead picture for a National Geographic story on Bahia, because it was both mysterious as well as a “geography” picture showing where the slaves arrived from Nigeria. Beach pictures seem like they should be easy to take, but for me they are actually quite difficult. Too easy to fall into cliche. When I saw the kid coming on the horse, I quickly ran to see if I could make something with a woman in a bikini that was not a bikini shot”. (Photo by David Alan Harvey/The Guardian)

“Be prepared” is the motto of petite Doris Sherrell, vocalist and dancer with “Blackouts of 1942”. In the event of a bombing, the young lady had her social security number tattooed on one leg by artist Jack Julian, and address placed on the other limb for means of identification in Los Angeles, September 29, 1942. (Photo by AP Photo)

Thailand’s Sanctuary of Truth is an all-wood building filled with sculptures based on traditional Buddhist and Hindu motifs. It is covered in intricate wood carvings, meant to depict complex ideas about ancient thought, human responsibility, and the cycle of life. (Photo by Yury Taranik/Getty Inages)

Deaf and hard of hearing people perform a Buddhist Guanyin Thousand Hand dance to mark Sunday's National Day for Helping the Disabled in Yunnan, Kunming province, China on May 19, 2018. (Photo by Wong Campion/Reuters)

Pedestrians look at the wreckage of a vehicle lodged in a storm drain on a street in Abidjan on June 19, 2018, in which a man was reportedly found dead after floodwaters receded following an overnight downpour in the city. Fifteen people have died in Abidjan, Ivory Coast' s economic capital, during flooding caused by torrential rain overnight, Interior Minister Sidiki Diakite said. Rain poured down overnight on June 19, causing flash floods up to 2.5 metres (more than eight feet) deep, he said. (Photo by Sia Kambou/AFP Photo)

Participants with traditional Japanese tattoos (Irezumi), related to the Yakuza, walk through the Asakusa district during the annual Sanja Matsuri festival in Tokyo on May 20, 2018. Sanja Matsuri festival is a celebration for the three founders of Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa neighbourhood with nearly two million people visiting during the three-day event. (Photo by Behrouz Mehri/AFP Photo)

A Capybara bathes in the hot spring water at the Saitama Children's zoo in Higashi Matsuyama city, Saitama prefecture on December 21, 2014. Seven capybaras in the zoo, originally from South America, enjoyed the hot spring water on the chilly winter day in Japan. (Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP Photo)