Rio scrambles to be ready as athletes, soldiers arrive

Special police forces patrol inside the Olympic Park less than two weeks before the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 24, 2016. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of armed troops fanned out across Rio de Janeiro and local organizers faced a rebellion by Australia about unfinished living accommodations as athletes began to move in Sunday for the first Olympics ever in South America.

Australia's Olympic team, complaining about uninhabitable rooms in the Olympic Village, refused to check in. Kitty Chiller, the head of the country's delegation, complained of "blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring."