Chiller feared for athletes' safety

Australia's Olympic team boss Kitty Chiller admits she feared for athletes' safety during the Rio Games and was worried some may not return home safely.

Chiller says the Rio Games "at every level have been an enormously difficult Games" but identified security as the biggest issue from day one.

"At the opening ceremony, one and a half minutes after marching into the main stadium I got a call saying two of our rowing coaches had been mugged and robbed at knifepoint 100 metres from our accommodation in Ipanema and it didn't really stop from there," Chiller said on Sunday.

"Bringing home 421 athletes and all our officials safe and sound was the primary objective of these Games.

"At times that looked like there was a huge risk that that would not be possible.

"That's why we constantly reviewed on a daily, hourly, basis our security protocols and reinforced the importance of those and sanctioned those who didn't recognise and didn't respect the importance of them.

"Security by far was the biggest challenge."

Chiller showed how serious she was about security when she put swimmers Josh Palmer and Emma Mckeon under virtual house arrest in the athletes' village after dark and banned them from the opening ceremony.

They had breached protocol by staying out in Copacabana overnight without telling team management.

While McKeon stayed the night with friends from the Swedish swimming team, Palmer was drinking all night, was robbed at gunpoint and found in a disoriented state mid-afternoon near Copacabana Beach.

Chiller said at the time the situation could have ended much worse and she didn't want to have to call a parent to tell them their child had been robbed, mugged "or something worse."

After an appeal from McKeon, Chiller opted to allow her to attend the closing ceremony.