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)

Maudy – Kalulushi, Zambia. Maudy was born in a hut in a small village close to Kalulushi, in Zambia. She grew up playing in the street with the other children in the village, who all attend the same school, where students ages 3 to 10 years old are in the same class. The village has no shops, restaurants or hotels, and just a few children are lucky enough to have toys. Maudy and her friends found a box full of sunglasses on the street, which quickly became their favorite toys. “Toy Stories” project. (Photo and caption by Gabriele Galimberti)

Seth Casteel is an award-winning photographer and the New York Times Best Selling Author of Underwater Dogs. His new book, Underwater Puppies, was published September 16, 2014. Photo: “Underwater Puppies”: Popcicle. (Photo by Seth Casteel)

A boy does a bicycle kick as he practises on the Marina beach ahead of the World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, in Chennai June 4, 2014. REUTERS/Babu

An old woman looks from inside a car with bullet holes and shattered windows as she flees fighting in the eastern Ukrainian town of Slaviansk June 9, 2014. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich.

The Plants like flower grow up in the wild. Spring 2014 near Paveh, Kermanshah, Iran

Competitors practice their moves before taking part in the UK Hobby Horse championship at Bury Farm Equestrian Centre on September 08, 2024 in Slapton, United Kingdom. While hobby horsing as a form of play has been around for centuries, the modern-day interpretation of the sport originated in Finland.(Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

An employee walks near a rotary dredge which works on the coal face of the Borodinsky opencast colliery, near the Siberian town of Borodino, east of Krasnoyarsk, December 9, 2014. The Borodinsky colliery, 9 km (5.6 miles) long and more than 100 meters (328 feet) deep, annually produces more than 20 million tons of coal and is considered to be the biggest opencast coal mine in Russia, according to official representatives. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)