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 competitor looses control of his pancake while racing during the Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, tradition at the National Cathedral February 21, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Puerto Rico's Ayden Owens-Delerme competes in the men's decathlon shot put of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 2, 2024. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

The old church of Geamana village is seen partially submerged by polluted water tainted with cyanide and other chemicals near Rosia Montana, central Romania, March 24, 2014. (Photo by Bogdan Cristel/Reuters)

Four pillars of light from the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) are shown reaching into the Chilean night sky in this image from ESO Photo Ambassador Fred Kamphues, on September 2, 2016. The lasers are a key part of the adaptive optics system on the VLT. Adaptive optics allows astronomers to drastically reduce the atmospheric distortion present at even the best sites in the world for astronomy, including Paranal in Chile, the home of the VLT. (Photo by F. Kamphues/ESO)

Laborers work on scaffolding near a full-scale replica of the Sphinx at an unfinished movie and animation tourism theme park, in Chuzhou, Anhui province, March 27, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Secondary school graduates play in a fountain as they celebrate the last day of school, traditionally called the “last bell” in central Kiev, Ukraine on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)