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 Parisian dances at the installation Electronica, a unique look at the great classics of 20th century electronic music, played under the vaults at the Collège des Bernardins part of Nuit Blanche, an annual evening festival of culture and art on October 03, 2020 in Paris, France. Scaled down this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival is split across the left and right banks of the city with many outdoor exhibitions to enable social distancing. (Photo by Kiran Ridley/Getty Images)

Vietnam’s Son Doong cave, the largest in the world, could hold a 40-story skyscraper inside. The pristine ecosystem has its own river and jungle. Despite its size, Son Doong wasn’t discovered until 1991. It was lost again for nearly two decades and was fully explored for the first time in 2009. (Photo by Jason Speth/HuffPost)

Hindu women worship the Sun god in the polluted waters of the river Yamuna during the Hindu religious festival of Chatth Puja in New Delhi, India, November 3, 2019. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

A soldier of the French Foreign Legion holding his regiment's banner at Bar Hacheim in Libya, circa 1940. (Photo by Three Lions). P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution.

The Queen Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) is reflected in a puddle as a cyclist rides by in London, on 27 June 2016. Britain began preparations to leave the European Union on Monday but said it would not be rushed into a quick exit, as markets plunged in the wake of a seismic referendum despite attempts to calm jitters. (Photo by Leon Neal/AFP Photo)

Two ruddy shelducks fly under a double rainbow in Odisha, India in July 2022. These birds are ruddy shelduck, known locally as the Brahminy duck. They have a wingspan of between 43 and 53 inches and stand at a maximum of 28 inches tall. (Photo by Suman Das/Media Drum Images)

New Forest ponies graze as the sun rises over Godshill in the New Forest, Hants on September 18, 2022, on the day before the Queen's state funeral tomorrow. (Photo by Claire Sheppard/Solent News & Photo Agency)