A 100,000 member security force is due to start work by the opening ceremony on August 5, but Chiller said she had written to the Rio organizers asking for them to be mobilized sooner.

"This is not an isolated incident, athletes have been mugged while training and competing in Rio test events and we want our athletes protected," Chiller said.

It is one of five designated hospitals which will treat tourists during the summer Olympics.

Athlete 'shaken' by robbery

The Australian Paralympic Committee released a statement on Monday which said both women were unharmed but shaken after the robbery, which they had reported to the police.

Speaking to Australia's Nine Network, Tesch described how she was pushed to the ground by the gunmen who then rode off on her bike.

"The guy in front of me, I think he said 'diner.' I speak sort of Spanish, so I pulled up my shirt and showed him I had no money. Then he said something else, I don't know what, and he lifted the gun up towards me," she said.

Tesch, who became an incomplete paraplegic at the age of 19 after a mountain bike accident, won a gold medal in Mixed Two Person Sailing at the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

She also won two silver medals and a bronze medal in wheelchair basketball at the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Games.

The Committee's Chef de Mission Kate McLoughlin said in a statement the Australian Federal Police had advised their athletes to exercise a high degree of caution while traveling in Rio.

"That advice is particularly important before the Paralympic Games period," she said. "We know there will be a hugely elevated level of security in place during the Paralympic Games but, for athletes and teams traveling there before the Games, there is a heightened need to be security conscious."