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)

Dan Copeland, left, and Alex Morneau of Biddeford, Maine, former high school cheerleaders, perform back flips while enjoying the record breaking heat, Thursday, May 18, 2017, at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The temperature climbed well into the 90s in many locations throughout the state. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

Indian men sleep in the shadow of an overflowing cloth container of hay, to be used as animal fodder, on a truck on a hot summer day in Ajmer in the western state of Rajasthan on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Shaukat Ahmed/AFP Photo)

A reveller perches on a public hire bicycle outside a bar in Shoreditch, the weekend before new licensing rules come in to effect across Hackney on July 28, 2018 in London, England. Hackney Council has voted to introduce strict new licensing rules which will see “core” curfews in place for new venues as well as extending the “Special Policy Area”, within which licenses are granted only in exceptional circumstances. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

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

Afghan children play at a brick-making factory on the outskirts of Jalalabad city, eastern Afghanistan on November 13, 2019. (Photo by Reuters/Parwiz)

Paramedics wearing protective suits amid fears of coronavirus outbreak check on a man who collapsed outside a clinic in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, March 26, 2020. It's not immediately clear what caused the man to collapse. The U.S. Embassy in Indonesia has ordered the departure of employees' family members under the age of 21 from its missions in the country where new COVID-19 patients have surged in the past week with high fatality. (Photo by Muchlis Akbar/AP Photo)

Rope access technicians carry out maintenance service on wind turbines including repairs, blade inspections and cleaning in Izmir, Turkey on February 19, 2021. In Turkey, where investments in renewable energy has increased, there are wind tribunes over 3,500. (Photo by Mahmut Serdar Alakus/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)