A white whale wears a wreath at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, Japan, on October 3, 2012. (Photo by Associated Press)

Lily Nguyen of Jessop, from Maryland, leaps up in the air as a friend takes her photo in front of cherry blossoms which have reached their peak bloom, along the Tidal Basin, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 21, 2022. (Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Giraffes doing the splits to get a drink of water from the watering hole at the Zimanga Private Game Reserve in South Africa on March 31, 2022. (Photo by Hendri Venter/Animal News Agency)

Sky attends the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on August 20, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

East Berliners crossing into the West Berlin on November 11, 1989 at the Potsdamer Platz, Germany. (Photo by Kai Wiedenhoefer)

An Orangutan named Elze walks in the Biopark of Rio during a media tour in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, March 18, 2021. The park was closed to the public for renovations to convert the city zoo into a center for biodiversity conservation and will reopen to the general public at the end of March. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)

Comedian Chevy Chase gets a kiss on his ear from co-star Benji as the two held a press conference in Los Angeles, September 6, 1979, at which they announced their up-coming movie “Oh Heavenly Dog” would begin filming this month. The film will be shot on location in London, Berlin and Paris; but due to British quarantine laws a double will be used for Benji at the London location. (Photo by Nick Ut/AP Photo)

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)