A woman, covered in coloured powder, takes part in the 2019 Colour Run, a 5 km run around the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, in Moscow, Russia on June 02, 2019. (Photo by Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A person viewing the Northern lights over the lava landscape, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. (Photo by Arctic-Images/Getty Images)

US Navy personnel walk on the flight deck aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) aircraft carrier during its port visit to Busan on March 28, 2023. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

Daniela Haralambie of Romania competes during the qualification of the women's FIS Ski Jumping World Cup competition at the Gross-Titlis Schanze in Engelberg, Switzerland, Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Photo by Philipp Schmidli/Keystone via AP Photo)

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)

Molly Swindall, 30, who travelled from the United States to meet Moo Deng for the third time, reacts as she takes a selfie with the one-year-old female pygmy hippo, who became a viral internet sensation last year, and her mother Jona, at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Street vendors carry chickens for sale at Kawran Bazar in Dhaka, Bangladesh January 25, 2017. (Photo by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)

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)