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 hummingbird is photographed during the National Orchid Exhibition at the Jose Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden in Bogota, Colombia Septermber 20, 2018. Picture taken September 20, 2018. (Photo by Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters)

A member of the riot police gets ready to repel the attacks of protesters during a protest against President Sebastian Piñera during the seventh day of protests against President Sebastian Piñera on October 24, 2019 in Santiago, Chile. Although President Sebastian Piñera announced measures to improve equality, unions called for a national strike and demonstrations continue as casualties are now at least 18. Demands behind the protest include issues like health care, pension system, privatization of water, public transport, education, social mobility and corruption. (Photo by Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

A devotee dressed as a Roman soldier whips a penitent playing the role of one of two thieves sentenced to be crucified alongside Jesus Christ, during the Via Crucis or Way of the Cross reenactment in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, April 15, 2022. Holy Week commemorates the last week of the earthly life of Jesus Christ culminating in his crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

An elephant sprays tourists with water in celebration of the Songkran Water Festival in Ayutthaya province, north of Bangkok, Thailand April 11, 2017. Trained elephants sprayed motorists and passers-by with water in Thailand's old capital city of Ayutthaya on Tuesday to welcome in the Buddhist New Year, known as “Songkran”. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

A bystander walks past a fresco by street artist Seth depicting a girl with a Ukrainian flag walking on tanks in Paris on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)

Armed Syrian Turkmen villagers are seen near the northern Syrian village of Yamadi, near the Turkish-Syrian border, Syria, November 24, 2015. Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday saying it had repeatedly violated its air space, one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Labourers walk near trucks loaded with logs, which are trapped on a muddy road, near an unreserved forest in the village of Igbatoro, southwest Nigeria, August 28, 2014. Wood, a form of biomass, is the sole source of energy for hundreds of millions of Africans who lack access to modern sources of power, and logging, both legal and illegal, remains a lucrative business that has contributed to the rapid shrinking of Africa's rainforests and woodlands. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)