A reveller from Unidos da Tijuca samba school performs during the second night of the carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 28, 2017. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

In this January 27, 2020 photo, Jessica Hahn-Chaplin applies make up before a rehearsal of the Paraiso de Tuiuti samba school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Hahn-Chaplin dances samba annually in Bath, England. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

Athletes from Australia's Olympic team going to the 2016 Olympics in Rio present their uniforms alongside Brazilian Samba dancer Sashya Jay at an official unveiling ceremony at Sydney's Bondi Beach, March 30, 2016. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

A reveller from Uniao da Ilha samba school performs during the second night of the carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil February 27, 2017. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

A reveller poses for a photo during the LGBT Pride Parade in Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 15, 2015. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/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)

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)