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)

In a photo taken on September 11, 2019, North Korean students pose for photos in Chonji lake, or “Heaven lake”, as they visit the crater of Mount Paektu, near Samjiyon. Mount Paektu has long been considered the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation and is a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of North Koreans every year, who are trained from birth to revere their leaders. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

Alphajet aircraft draw a heart-shaped message in the sky during the 2010 presentation show of the French aerobatics team Patrouille de France, over the French city of Salon-de-Provence. (Photo by Gerard Julien/AFP Photo)

An endangered desert bighorn lamb leaps in play at a park where bighorns are tempted to leave the safety of their native habitat to eat grass and drink water in the summertime on August 9, 2023 near Indio, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

Norway's Karsten Warholm celebrates winning the men's 400m hurdles at the Diamond League in London, July 21, 2018. (Photo by Andrew Boyers/Action Images via Reuters)

Philadelphia Phillies Ben Francisco reacts after being hit in the head with a pitch by Cincinnati Reds Logan Ondrusek during the MLB National League Division Series baseball playoffs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States in this October 8, 2010 file photo. (Photo by Tim Shaffer/Reuters)

Samba dancers arrive to perform ahead of the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, August 14, 2016. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Afghan children wait as their mothers receive treatment at a USAID-funded health center on September 7, 2011 in Farza, Afghanistan. Almost 10 years after the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. government funds some of 500 Afghan health facilities nationwide, most run by non-governmental organizations contracted by the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)