A white whale wears a wreath at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, Japan, on October 3, 2012. (Photo by Associated Press)

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)

Revellers chat on Havana's Malecon seafront before performing at a carnival parade, Cuba, August 12, 2016. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

A performer dances at a housing exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, September 27, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A protester jumps on the table in front of the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi during a news conference in Frankfurt, Germany April 15, 2015. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

Members of the Kaisokah Moko Jumbies perform with fire on the waterfront near their San Fernando, Trinidad base February 10, 2015. (Photo by Andrea De Silva/Reuters)

A man poses with a hyena along a street in Lagos, Nigeria November 4, 2008. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Participants perform a dragon dance as they march during a lantern parade marking the start of a month- long “Lotus Lantern Festival” to celebrate the upcoming Buddha' s birthday, in Seoul on April 29, 2017 Buddha' s birthday falls on May 3. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)