Olympic badminton champion Lee Yong-dae, suspended earlier for failing to follow anti-doping protocol, has been reinstated, officials here said on Tuesday, a dramatic turn of events that allows the shuttler to compete at this year’s Asian Games on home soil.

Shin Geh-ryuen, head of the Badminton Korea Association, announced at a press conference that one-year suspensions imposed earlier on Lee and a second South Korean player, Kim Ki-jung, have been lifted.

In January, the Badminton World Federation disciplined Lee and Kim for violating international anti-doping procedures. 

The BWF said the two had failed to meet “requirements relating to filing whereabouts information and resulting missed tests under the BWF Anti-Doping Regulations” on three occasions in 2013.

The suspension had taken effect on Jan. 23, 2014.

It would have ruled the two players out for the Asian Games in Incheon, west of Seoul, starting in September, but Shin said they will now be able to compete after the BWF’s Doping Hearing Panel decided to lift the suspension on Monday, effective immediately.

“All records of violations by Lee and Kim will be expunged under this decision by the BWF,” Shin said.

“Lee will also be reinstated as a member of the BWF’s Athletes Commission.”

Shin said the South Korean association, in its appeal to the BWF, argued that the players had not been informed properly of the tests and that they had not purposely missed them.

He also said the South Korean governing body also stressed to the BWF that the players were not at fault and that their national association was responsible for the administrative mishap.

Also on Tuesday, the BWF announced on its website that the suspension has been lifted.

It said its Doping Hearing Panel based its reversal on “significant new evidence” presented by the BKA.

The BWF stressed that it is the players’ “individual responsibility” to provide accurate whereabouts information. The BKA had taken on an administrative role in managing its players’ whereabouts, the BWF noted, and failed to properly look after Lee and Kim, which resulted in a fine of $41,170.

Shin said the BKA had filed a separate appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Feb. 14 and that the appeal will be dropped on Tuesday after the BWF overturned its earlier ruling.

Kim & Chang, a major South Korean law firm, said its team of about a dozen attorneys provided the players and the South Korean badminton body with legal consultation.

Jeffrey Jones, a U.S.-born international attorney, said while the World Anti-Doping Agency may still appeal the BWF’s about-face with the CAS, it is a highly unlikely scenario.

Even if the WADA files an appeal, it won’t have any bearing on the two players’ status for the Asian Games because the final ruling will likely be reached after the competition, Jones added.

Jones had earlier aided footballer Park Jong-woo receive his bronze medal from the 2012 London Olympics, which was once withheld by the International Olympic Committee for what it deemed was the player’s politically motivated postgame celebration.

Lee, 25, won the gold medal in the mixed doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also grabbed a bronze medal in the men’s doubles at the London Olympics in 2012. (Yonhap)