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)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

A winter swimming enthusiast dives into a partly frozen lake in a partly frozen lake in Shenyang, in northeastern China's Liaoning province on January 25, 2022. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Immigrants from the West Indies at Victoria Station in London, 1956. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Workers hang hundreds of color-dyed sheets of cloth on a bamboo framework to dry in a dyeing factory in Narayanganj, Bangladesh on May 23, 2023. The drying process usually takes 4 hours, with each set of 200 pieces at a time to dry in temperatures over 42 degrees Celsius. Workers use hats for protection from the scorching heat because they have to constantly turn the colorful fabrics so that they dry perfectly in the sunlight. (Photo by Joy Saha/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

“Anastasiya Shpagina is one of the famous women who have transformed themselves into looking like human dolls. Hailing from Ukraine, 19-year-old Anastasiya Shpagina always loved Japanese cartoon characters, and has dreamed of becoming a living doll that appears in animes. She transformed her look into something that can be seen in the pages of a manga book”.

Photo: “Human Anime Doll” Anastasiya Shpagina (R) with “Human Barbie Doll” Valeria Lukyanova. (Photo by Anastasiya Shpagina & Valeria Lukyanova)

Participants take part in a high-heel race at a Gay Pride party in the central neighborhood of Chueca in Madrid on July 3, 2014. (Photo by Gerard Julien/AFP Photo)

“Misty Morning”. Every morning, people expect sunny weather. Photo location: Bali, Indonesia. (Photo and caption by Henry Adam/National Geographic Photo Contest)