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)

“Kids of Sapa”. Four little beautiful Hmong girls from Lao Chai Village, near Sapa, Vietnam. (Photo and caption by Felipe Hanower/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

“The Sunsetter”. An EF-4 tornado rips through the open space of farmland near Rozel, Kansas. This tornado moves slowly but powerful towards the setting sun an gets its beautiful color right before sunset. Storm Chasers are spotting on the left side. Photo location: Rozel, Kansas. (Photo and caption by Dennis Oswald/National Geographic Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3. (Photo by NASA/GSFC/SDO via The Atlantic)

A mahout splashes water on his elephant in the river Sabarmati on a hot summer day in Ahmedabad, India, May 20, 2015. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

A Naga sadhu, or naked Hindu holy man, performs a ritual inside his tent during Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher festival, at Trimbakeshwar, India, Friday, August 28, 2015. Hindus believe taking a dip in the waters of a holy river during the festival will cleanse them of their sins. The festival is held four times every 12 years. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

US model Binx Walton strutted out with a boob exposed and only a glittery love heart ­protecting her modesty in Anthony Vaccarello’s debut show for Saint ­Laurent on September 27, 2016. The Sun found out how the trend measured up on trip to the shops. Here: Isabella Besque 21 from London tries out the nipple cover look as seen Paris Fashion week on the streets of London, England on October 7, 2016. (Photo by Stewart Williams/The Sun)

2017 Paraguay-Bolivia-Argentina Dakar rally, 39th Dakar Edition, Seventh stage from Oruro to Uyuni, Bolivia on January 9, 2017. Juan Salvatierra of Bolivia rides his KTM. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)