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)

Looters scramble in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Sunday September 10, 1995 for goods in the Ram's department store, which contained mostly food and liquor. No attempts are currently being made by Dutch troops on the island to stop the looting, since few relief supplies have arrived in St. Maarten, which was ravaged on Tuesday by Hurricane Luis. (Photo by John McConnico/AP Photo)

Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) soldiers and firefighters make rescue works among mountain lodges, covered with volcanic ash near the peak of Mt. Ontake, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures in this September 28, 2014 photo taken and released by Kyodo. More than 30 people were feared dead on Sunday near the peak of the Japanese volcano that erupted a day earlier, sending a huge cloud of ash and rock tumbling down its slopes, while packed with hikers. (Photo by Reuters/Kyodo News)

A girl bathes to cool off herself with water that is leaking from a broken pipe valve on a hot summer day on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, May 18, 2015. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Members of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret cross Broad St., before a march by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in Philadelphia, on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, July 25, 2016. (Photo by Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP Images)

Alexis Ren seen at Focus Features Los Angeles Special Screening of “Nocturnal Animals” at Hammer Museum on Friday, November 11, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Focus Features/AP Images)

American media personality Kim Kardashian seen on February 17, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Hollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images)

Ahmad Sayed Rahman, a five-year-old Afghan boy who lost his right leg when he was hit by a bullet in the crossfire of a battle, dances with his prosthetic leg at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hospital for war victims and the disabled, in Kabul on May 7, 2019. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)