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)

Moscow riot police prepare to move on activists during an unsacnctioned anti-Putin opposition rally at the Pushkin Square March 5, 2012 in central Moscow, Russia. Amid charges of fraud, demonstrators took to the streets a day after Vladimir Putin declared victory in Russia's presidential elections. (Photos by: Rustem Adagamov; Source: LiveJournal; Gleb Shchelkunov; Source: LiveJournal; Ilya Varlamov; Source: LiveJournal; Raskalov; Source: LiveJournal; Dmitry Chistoprudov; Source: LiveJournal)

A woman transports fodder for her cattle on a bullock cart on the outskirts of Ajmer, Rajasthan, January 6, 2017. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/Reuters)

Tourists are visiting Pingyao Ancient City in Shanxi Province, China, on July 9, 2024. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Devotees pour water on a revered Bodhi tree at Shwedagon Pagoda to mark Buddha's Birthday, which falls on the Full Moon Day of Kasone, in Yangon on May 11, 2025. (Photo by Sai Aung Main/AFP Photo)

Fishermen are surrounded by green water as they use large nets to catch fish. The workers were pictured trying to find fish below the algae in Rajshahi, Bangladesh in the last decade of February 2024. (Photo by Bipul Ahmed/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Couples take part in a competition during a mass wedding of 64 doctoral student couples at Harbin Institute of Technology, a university in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China, June 4, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Emily Ratajkowski and Vanessa Hudgens attend the 73rd Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 09, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)