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)

Participants with the word “Harta” on their bodies, link arms as they mark International Women's Day at Avenida 18 de Julio in downtown Montevideo, Uruguay March 8, 2021. The word is a term to say exhausted or “had enough” but used by women. (Photo by Mariana Greif/Reuters)

In this March 30, 2019 photo, Andrea Dovizioso of Italy falls from his bike during a Moto GP free practice run at the circuit in Termas de Rio Hondo, Argentina. Despite the fall Dovizioso raced in the third pole position on Sunday and finished in third place. (Photo by Nicolas Aguilera/AP Photo)

Italian Moto2 rider Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Italtrans Racing Team, crashes during the race of the Motorcycling Grand Prix of Andalusia at the Jerez-Angel Nieto circuit in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 26 July 2020. (Photo by Roman Rios/EPA/EFE)

The deserts of Argentina take on a starring role in this photographer’s breathtaking Milky Way shots. Amateur snapper Gonzalo Javier Santile, 46, spent the last two years capturing these rare shots of the galaxy as it arced over deserts in Salta Cafayate, Cordoba Valle de Punilla, Provincia de Buenos Aires and the Rio Negro province. In his pictures, the Milky Way can be admired as it towers over canyons, cacti, bushes, and even small brooks and lakes. (Photo by Gonzalo Javier Santile/Caters News Agency)

This aerial image shows a gossan reservoir at the Riotinto mines in Minas de Riotinto, near of Huelva on September 30, 2022. Although the Rio Tinto Company began to exploit these mines in 1873, this mining site already supplied minerals to the ancient Greeks and Romans. (Photo by Jorge Guerrero/AFP Photo)

Brazilians perform capoeira on the first day of Carnival celebrations on February 16, 2012 in Salvador, Brazil. Rio de Janiero's Carnival begins tomorrow. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

A man grimaces walking by the “Lettuce Ladies”, a group of PETA activists, during an event promoting a vegan lifestyle, downtown Bucharest, Romania, Monday, August 14, 2017. Two PETA vegan ambassadors distributed vegan food to passers by in the Romanian capital, the latest stop in a tour including the United States, Russia and Turkey aimed at promoting a vegan lifestyle. The sign reads in Romanian “start fresh: become vegan”. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)