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)

Giraffes doing the splits to get a drink of water from the watering hole at the Zimanga Private Game Reserve in South Africa on March 31, 2022. (Photo by Hendri Venter/Animal News Agency)

Miranda state beauty pageant contestant Luiseth Materan, wearing a protective face mask issued by the Miss Venezuela beauty pageant, arrives to the Venevision television station to prepare for a meeting with judges, in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, September 18, 2020. Quarantine rules and social distancing has forced the contestants to train at home and online with limited access to the venue itself where strict measures are in place. The pageant is due to take place on Sept. 24. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

A Buddhist monk wearing a protective mask walks around the Sewu temple during the celebrations of Vesak Day, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, May 26, 2021. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

In this fur-ocious fight, two fox twins have been spotted locking paws as this sibling rivalry spirals into an epic brawl in London in the last decade of August 2023. (Photo by Anthony Cunningham/Caters News Agency)

A tourist visits an ocean park during the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, 2024 in Handan, Hebei Province of China. May 22 marks the 24th International Day for Biological Diversity. (Photo by Hao Qunying/VCG via Getty Images)

U.S. President Donald Trump holds news conference on the coronavirus outbreak at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 26, 2020. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Venezuelan artist Deborah Castillo licks the boots of a man dressed as a member of the military during her performance “Lamebrasil, Lamezuela – questioning power in Latin America”, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 24, 2019. (Photo by Amanda Perobell/Reuters)