Claire Robertson from Scottish Ballet, poses dressed as the Good Snow Flake inside a life size snow globe on Buchanan Street during a promotion for Scottish Ballet’s festive production of The Nutcracker on November 20, 2012 in Glasgow, Scotland. The Nutcracker opens at the Theatre Royal on December the 8th, the production delves deep into the darker reaches of Hoffmann’s original tale in a fresh and vivid retelling of the famous Christmas story. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell)

A policeman is pictured near a woman with a baby during an operation against drug dealers in Cidade de Deus or City of God slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 23, 2016. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Members of a samba school warm up before parading along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, January 6, 2018. Musicians and members from Rio de Janeiro's top 13 samba schools have paraded in an event aimed at promoting tourism ahead of Rio's world famous Carnival that begins early next month. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

Brazilian revelers pose during Carnival celebrations along Ipanema beach on February 18, 2012 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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)

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)