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)

Morocco player Yassine Bounou's son, Isaac, plays on the pitch after the country's World Cup win against Portugal at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha, Qatar on December 10, 2022. (Photo by Carl Recine/Reuters)

Sikh Nihang (Sikh warriors) perform “Gatka”, an ancient form of Sikh martial arts, during the “Nagar Kirtan” procession to mark the 339th birth anniversary of the Sikh warrior Shaheed Baba Deep Singh, in Amritsar on January 31, 2021. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo/Profimedia)

A violent eruption spews ash more than a kilometer into the sky above Mount Etna in Sicily on February 23, 2021. (Photo by Marco Restivo/Barcroft Studios via Getty Images)

Raquel Poti performs on stilts during the Amigos da Onca street Carnival party, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, February 10, 2024. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)

People attend in costume the 2022 New York Comic Con, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., October 6, 2022. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Sunrise over a moor viewed from Littaford Tor, Dartmoor, UK, 2016. Autumn visits the windswept moors and granite tors of Dartmoor earlier than the rest of the south-west. While there aren’t many trees here, autumn shades appear in golden ferns and tan heather. Littaford Tors, near Two Bridges and a mile from Princetown, is a short walk and can be combined with a visit to the adjacent Wistman’s Wood. (Photo by Stuart Holmes)

A girl in a military uniform poses for a photo after the see-off ceremony before the launch in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 25 April 2024. China's Shenzhou-18 manned spaceflight mission with three astronauts is the third manned spaceflight mission of China Space Station's development phase. The mission will last for about six months and the crew will carry out tasks such as installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair, and experiments in space. (Photo by Wu Hao/EPA/EFE)