Taipale started competing in 1908 and won three Finnish titles in the discus throw and two in the shot put.

At the 1912 Olympic Games he won gold medals in two discus throw events, conventional and two-handed,[2][3] where the total was counted as a sum of best throws with a left hand and with a right hand.

After World War I, he won a silver medal in the conventional discus throw at the 1920 Summer Olympics and finished tenth in the shot put.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics, he competed only in the discus throw and finished in 12th place.

[7] Besides athletics, he competed in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Nordic Games and played association football.