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)

Shura Kitata of Ethiopia runs past cardboard cut-outs of the Duke of Cambridge and the Queen at the London Marathon in London, Britain, 04 October 2020. (Photo by Tom Jenkins/The Guardian)

Visitors enjoy a walk accross a suspension bridge for the pedestrians that is the longest such construction in the world shortly after its official opening at a mountain resort in Dolni Morava, Czech Republic, Friday, May 13, 2022. The 721-meter (2,365 feet) long bridge is built at the altitude of more than 1,100 meters above the sea level. It connects two ridges of the mountains up to 95 meters above a valley between them. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

A seal infront of a passing cruise ship on the shore between Sandhaven village and Fraserburgh in Scotland in August 2023. (Photo by Mark Grant/Caters News Agency)

Supporters of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro take part in a rally in support of the government in Caracas, Venezuela on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

People wear clothing to protect them from the heat while riding along a street in Hanoi, Vietnam, 24 April 2019. North and central Vietnam was recently affected by extreme hot weather, with the highest temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celcius, according to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA/EFE)

A sеx doll is seen on a bed at the doll brothel “Dollhaus” in Speyer, Germany, 10 December 2018. The “Dollhaus” is the first brothel with sеx dolls only in Germany. The “Dollhaus”, in Speyer, is the brainchild of businessman Raphael Abelmann who says his girls – including ladyboy versions – are the future of the sеx industry. (Photo by Ronald Wittek/EPA/EFE)

Groundhog Club co-handler Al Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, in front of the crowd gathered for the 133rd celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. Saturday, February 2, 2019. Phil's handlers said that the groundhog has forecast an early spring. (Photo by Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)