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)

Labourers carry a basket packed with vegetables through a wholesale market in Kolkata, India, February 26, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

The new wax figure of American singer Jennifer Lopez is unveiled on May 21, 2003 at Madame Tussauds, London. The waxwork is the first ever blushing figure. (Photo by Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)

Dancers resting on the rooftop of the SKD Theatre Asakusa, Tokyo, 1949. (Photo by Tanuma Takeyoshi/The Guardian)

Revellers enjoy during New Year celebrations in Manchester, England on January 1, 2019. (Photo by Mercury Press)

Renee LeGrand, of Foothill Ranch, Calif., takes a picture among wildflowers in bloom Monday, March 18, 2019, in Lake Elsinore, Calif. About 150,000 people flocked over the weekend to see this year's rain-fed flaming orange patches of poppies lighting up the hillsides near Lake Elsinore, a city of about 60,000 residents. The crowds became so bad Sunday that Lake Elsinore officials closed access to poppy-blanketed Walker Canyon. By Monday the #poppyshutdown announced by the city on Twitter was over and the road to the canyon was re-opened. (Photo by Gregory Bull/AP Photo)

Jeepneys are seen as an enforcer manages traffic at a busy street in Manila on May 30, 2017. Jeepneys, once hailed as the “King of the Road” and a cultural symbol in the Phillipines to rival New York's yellow taxis, may soon disappear from Manila's gridlocked streets, as authorities move to phase out the Philippines' iconic World War II-era minibuses, citing pollution and safety concerns. (Photo by Noel Celis/AFP Photo)

Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock wears Union Jack socks as he leaves with Britain's Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Evans after a cabinet meeting on Downing Street in London, Britain on January 7, 2020. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)