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)

A participant in the Crazy Races extreme sports game competes in the cross-country obstacle race in Ufa, Russia on September 21, 2015. (Photo by TASS/Barcroft Media)

Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokul April 17, 2010. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

People enjoying the hot weather on Brighton beach in Sussex, England on August 7, 2020. (Photo by Stephen Lock/i-Images)

Performers during the New Year's Day Parade in London on Monday, January 1, 2024. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

In this July 25, 2015 photo, youth eat a cooked pig's head as they wait for the start of carnival in Santiago, Cuba. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

Singer Beyonce arrives at TIDAL X: 1020 Amplified by HTC at the Barclays Center on Tuesday, October 20, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Photo)

A police officer stands at a police cordon near the scene of a terror attack in London, U.K., on Sunday, June 4, 2017. A van swerved into Saturday-night crowds on London Bridge, before three men got out and went on a stabbing rampage through nearby bars. (Photo by Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg)