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 very delicate person, beneath the flamboyance”. Jasper, Ladbroke Grove, 1977. “In the 1970s, Australia was rather cut off. I’d always wanted to live abroad, so I moved to Rome and then London. I was an art historian, but started studying photography part-time. I was interested in the demi-monde culture and began mixing in all sorts of circles. Jasper was a rather wonderful character...”. (Photo by Jane England)

Young children at a Bristol, Great Britain health centre unsure of the benefits of sun-lamps and the special glasses that must be worn, July 1948. The health centre was part of the newly introduced free National Health Service. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Internationally acclaimed German three-dimensional artist Manfred Stader adds finishing touches to his artwork in Cape Town, South Africa on 21 November 2010. Stader created this masterpiece to celebrate the opening of Speedo's first dedicated concept store in Africa. (Photo by Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

A general view shows sculptures made of waste material titled “Trash People” by German Artist HA Schult (unseen), on April 2, 2014 in Ariel Sharon Park, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. Hundreds of human-size figures constructed from 20 tons of recycled material, including iron, glass, computer parts, cans and more, will dominate the sky line of Tel-Aviv city and be placed in the park. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP Photo)

These stunning photographs of the world’s last remaining Mongolian eagle keepers show the incredible bond between man and bird. The images were taken by photography tour guide Daniel Kordan, 29, in September 2018. (Photo by Daniel Kordan/Caters News Agency)

This is Raymond, an orphaned koala that was found abandoned beside a road in Brisbane, Australia. He was named after the man who found him.

Bride Fan Huixiang (front R), a 25-year-old cancer patient, receives flowers from nurses on her bed before her wedding ceremony at a hospital in Zhengzhou, Henan province November 17, 2014. Fan was diagnosed with late stage adenocarcinoma, a type of cancerous tumor, at her thoracic vertebra this June. She and her 24-year-old husband Yu Haining held their wedding ceremony at the hospital on Monday after five years of relationship, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)