Estonia's olympic team female marathon runners triplets (L-R) Lily, Liina and Leila Luik run during a training session in Tartu, Estonia, May 26, 2016. Leila, Liina and Lily Luik will make Olympics history as the first identical triplets to compete against each other when they cross the start line for the women's marathon in Rio. (Photo by Ints Kalnins/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)

Olga Gharkova enters a aromatherapy room at the British Banya bathhouse, Saturday, February 15, 2014, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, just a few miles away from the ski slopes where athletes are competing for Olympic medals. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)

Partipants vie for the ball during the 11th Mud Olympics held at the North Sea coast in Brunsbuettel, Germany, July 11, 2015. Amateur athletes have competed in several disciplines at the Mud Olympics since 2004. (Photo by Axel Heimken/EPA)

José Pereira de Souza plays an accordion as actress and model Tatiana Melo gives a television interview in Feira Nordestina outside of the Olympic periphery on Wednesday, August 17, 2016. (Photo by Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

A sculpture is displayed at the Olympic Sculptures Exhibition at the Sculpture Park September 4, 2006 in Changchun of Jilin Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

South Korea's Shim Sukhee falls in the women's 1,500m short track speed skating heat event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung on February 17, 2018. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Athletes vie for the ball during the Mud Olympics in Brunsbuettel, Germany, 30 July 2016. Since 2004, amateur athletes have been competing in various events at the mouth of the Elbe river on the North Sea. The proceeds are traditionally donated to the Schleswig-Holstein Cancer Society. (Photo by Daniel Bockwoldt/EPA)