Sport's highest court has overturned a one-year doping ban handed to the Belarusian men's canoe and kayak teams by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) in July.
That suspension meant Belarus could only send its women's team to the Rio Olympics in August and today's decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport may leave the ICF vulnerable to legal action.
The Belarus squad was banned following a raid of its training camp in France by police and anti-doping officials in April. Various items and substances were confiscated and 17 members of the squad were drug-tested.
Five of them tested positive for meldonium, the heart-boosting drug that was controversially added to the banned list last January only for the World Anti-Doping Agency to later admit it was not sure how long it takes for the substance to leave an adult's system.
The Belarus Canoe Association tried to have the ban suspended in July so its male paddlers could go to Rio but a CAS panel rejected that attempt.
But when a three-man panel of CAS experts heard the formal appeal in November, it ruled in Belarus's favour.
In a written statement from the court, it said: "On the basis of the evidence and arguments submitted by the parties, the CAS panel found there was insufficient evidence to uphold several of the alleged anti-doping rule violations.
"Accordingly, in the absence of multiple anti-doping rule violations, the panel found that there was no justification to uphold the imposition of a one-year ban on the Belarus senior men's Canoe and Kayak teams and decided to set aside the decision taken by the ICF executive committee."
Canoeing has been one of the most successful sports for Belarus at recent Games, with the men's team winning two gold medals and a bronze in 2008 and two silvers at London 2012. The women's squad earned a solitary bronze in Rio.
Belarus, however, has a poor record for doping, with the country facing a one-year ban from weightlifting once the positive cases from the re-testing of samples given at the 2008 and 2012 Games are formally completed.
That process has recently resulted in shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk losing a bronze medal from the Beijing Games, having already been stripped of a gold medal from the London Olympics and a world title from 2005 for two other positive tests.
The ICF has not responded to a Press Association request for comment.