Top seed Lee and third seed Lin can only meet in the semi-finals after being drawn in Group A and Group E respectively.

Lin beat Lee in the gold medal matches at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and will be looking to make it a hat-trick of Olympic crowns in Rio de Janeiro.

The Chinese is joined in Group E by Russia’s Vladimir Malkov, Austria’s David Obernosterer and Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen, while Lee has been pitted against Suriname’s Soren Opti and Singapore’s Derek Wong Zi Liang.

Other names to watch out for in his half of the draw are Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, Hong Kong’s Hu Yun, Denmark’s Jan Ø. Jørgensen and India’s Kidambi Srikanth.

The other half of the draw features fourth seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, alongside two-time world champion and second seed Cheng Long of China, Germany’s Marc Zwiebler, Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long and South Korea’s Son Wan Ho.

In the women’s singles, top seed Carolina Marin of Spain has been drawn in Group A and is on the same side as the two players she has beaten in World Championship finals; China’s Li Xuerui and India’s Saina Nehwal.

The other seeds in her half are South Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun, Great Britain’s Kirsty Gilmour and Thailand’s Porntip Buranapraserstsuk, ranked seventh, 11th and 12th respectively.

Second seed Wang Yihan of China faces a possible quarter-final against Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying or India’s PV Sindhu, while potential semi-final opponents include Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, South Korea’s Bae Yeon Ju and Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara.

Group D is arguably the "group of death" in men’s doubles with second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia joined by China’s Chai Biao and Hong Wei, Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa and India’s Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy.

Meanwhile in the women’s doubles, Group B appears to be the most competitive with South Korea’s Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan set to battle Dubai World Superseries Finals champions Luo Ying and Luo Yu of China for group supremacy.

Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl and the United States' Paula Lynn Obanana and Eva Lee complete the group.

As for the mixed doubles, Olympic bronze medallists Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark are in Group B with BCA Indonesia Open champions Xu Chen and Ma Jin of China, Poland’s Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba and Dubai World Superseries Finals champions Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock of Britain.

Top seeds Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China will face off in Group A against Yonex All England champions Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto of Indonesia, Hong Kong’s Lee Chun Hei and Chau Hoi Wah and Germany’s Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels.

The draw for the Olympic badminton tournament took place in Rio Centro - Pavilion 4 venue, where the badminton events are due to staged during the Games.

During a break between the singles and doubles draws, Badminton World Federation secretary general Thomas Lund addressed the question of the Russian athletes slated to compete at the Games.

Vladimir Malkov is due to compete in the men’s singles, while Natalia Perminova is set to contest the women’s singles and Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov the men’s doubles.

Lund confirmed that the BWF has provided information about all four players to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding the criteria for participation in Rio 2016.

"We have had a rigid drug-testing programme, especially leading up to Rio 2016 and all four Russian athletes have been tested in and out of competition and their samples have been analysed outside of Russia," he said.

"We believe the information that we have provided on these athletes lives up to the criteria for participation in the Badminton competition at Rio 2016, but it is left for the IOC to validate.

"We have chosen to keep them in the draw, pending that validation."