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)

Dancer Megan changes costume as she performs in the review “Feerie” at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, France, July 3, 2018. Each show requires 1,000 outfits, all crafted in the workshops that have been supplying the Moulin Rouge for decades. Each dancer has to make between 10 and 15 costume changes per show, with about 90 seconds to complete each one before they have to be back out on stage. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

A Tibetan nomad family crowds on a motorcycle at a camp for cordycep pickers on May 21, 2016 near Sershul on the Tibetan Plateau in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan province. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Girls play with live Teacup pigs, a rare pet in the country, at the start of celebrations leading to the Lunar New Year, Friday, February 1, 2019 at Lucky Chinatown Plaza mall in Manila, Philippines. The upcoming Year of the Pig represents abundance, diligence and generosity. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

A girl laughs while unloading her boat of produce at a market in Ganvie on January 6, 2012 in Cotonou, Benin. Often called the Venice of Africa, Ganvie is a stilted fishing village on Lake Nokoue, near Cotonou in Benin, the largest such village in Africa, and home to approximately 20,000 residents. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

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)

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)