“Thunderstruck”. Summer stom. A super cell formed off the coast of New Zealand, intensified and swept across Christchurch and North Canterbury, February 23, 2014. Photo location: Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo and caption by David Hardy/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Andrea Abarca, (C) leads an aerobics class in Los Guidos de Desamparados July 23, 2015. More than 300 women participated in a physical health program organized by Abarca, which aims to combat obesity and sedentary behavior in poor women living in a slum. The National Nutrition Survey shows that the Costa Rican population has 62.4 percent of adult men who are obese, while among women the percentage was 77.3, according to local media. (Photo by Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters)

Winner. “I took this picture of a woman in traditional clothing in Cartagena, Colombia”. PAUL GOLDSTEIN, JUDGE: “The blaze of colour from every angle, the boldness of the picture, taken from behind, which gives it so much more allure and frankly a superb get up. Did I mention the colours? Oh, and that looks suspiciously like a Nokia”. (Photo by Stanislav Shmelev/The Guardian)

A woman crosses an open sewer as she makes her way to her house in a Christian slum in Islamabad December 4, 2014. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

A fruit importer's lorry at Covent Garden, London, with its driver's cabin in the shape of an apple. (Photo by Harold Clements/London Express/Getty Images). October 1928

Winner, photojournalism. Elephant in the room, by Adam Oswell, Australia Zoo. Visitors watch a young elephant performing underwater. Oswell was disturbed by this scene, and organisations concerned with the welfare of captive elephants say performances like this encourage unnatural behaviour. In Thailand, there are now more elephants in captivity than in the wild. With the Covid pandemic causing tourism to collapse, elephant sanctuaries are becoming overwhelmed with animals that can no longer be looked after by their owners. (Photo by Adam Oswell/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021)

Paramedics care for a woman who is ill after the Geelong Cup on Geelong Cup day at Geelong Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, 19 October 2016. The Geelong Racing Club was founded in March 1865 at a public meeting at the British Hotel. The first Geelong Cup was held in 1872 over a distance of two miles. (Photo by Tracey Nearmy/EPA)

Here are the bravest of the brave in 2016. Weve gathered some of the finest images showing daredevils taking their lives into their own hands and going to the very brink this year. Whether they are perched hundreds of feet up on a high wire, courageously clinging to a rockface or taking on a volcano, these adventurers take the breath away. Here: Morgane Choquet and Samuel Cobb relax in a vertical campsite on the slopes of El Capitan, Yosemite National Park. (Photo by Alexandre Eggermont/Caters News)