Carpenter traveled widely in his family's company throughout his childhood before matriculating at Cornell University, from which he graduated in 1907.

Carpenter placed third in the 1908 collegiate national track and field championship, 440 yards while running for Cornell.

However, umpire Roscoe Badger determined that Carpenter had willfully interfered with British runner Wyndham Halswelle.

His countrymen, John Taylor and William Robbins, protested the ruling by boycotting the second final, leaving Halswelle to take the gold medal uncontested in the only walkover in the modern Olympic history.

The disputed race was instrumental in the formation of the International Amateur Athletic Federation before the next Olympics, which sought to standardize the rules by which various sports played around the world.