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)

An Indian man feeds peanuts to monkeys along a busy street in Ahmedabad on July 31, 2016. Feeding animals is sacred in Hindu society. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/AFP Photo)

A man exercises in the early morning on a hilltop overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan March 3, 2016. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

A woman holds a dressed cat during the exhibition “Autumn-2014” in Minsk, November 23, 2014. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A bandana-clad anti-government demonstrator gestures as she stands by the smoke of burning tires at a make-shift roadblock in Zouk Mosbeh north of Lebanon's capital Beirut, on March 8, 2021 during a protest against the deteriorating value of the local currency and dire economic and social conditions. (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP Photo)

Visitors enjoy a walk accross a suspension bridge for the pedestrians that is the longest such construction in the world shortly after its official opening at a mountain resort in Dolni Morava, Czech Republic, Friday, May 13, 2022. The 721-meter (2,365 feet) long bridge is built at the altitude of more than 1,100 meters above the sea level. It connects two ridges of the mountains up to 95 meters above a valley between them. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

Isabeau Levito, of the United States, reacts at the end of her short program at the world figure skating championships in Montreal, Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Photo by Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP Photo)

Croatian model, Instagram influencer, TikTok star and social media celebrity Ivana Knoll looks on during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group F match between Croatia and Belgium at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on December 1, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)