Nicholas Delpopolo visits the USA House at the Royal College of Art on August 2, 2012 in London, England.
American judo fighter Nicholas Delpopolo was expelled from the Olympic Games on Monday after testing positive for marijuana, the Associated Press reported.
Delpopolo said he accidentally ate the drug before arriving in London. He is the first athlete at the London Olympics to fail an in-competition doping test, the AP wrote. Four other athletes were caught before competition began.
He insisted he had not known the food contained the banned substance, the BBC reported.
The International Olympic Committee said Delpopolo "indicated that he was embarrassed by this mistake" and apologized to the United States Olympic Committee and his team-mates.
More from GlobalPost: Usain Bolt is (still) the fastest man in the world
The BBC wrote the 23-year-old had finished seventh in the men's 73kg competition and was tested after he lost to Mongolian Nyam-Ochir Sainjargal in the repechage stage.
The story you just read is not locked behind a paywall because listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Now more than ever, we need your help to support our global reporting work and power the future of The World. Can we count on you?