George Carpenter competed in the fencing at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, travelling to Finland at his own expense after the OCI’s Standards Committee declined to select him – an admission to the Games secured through the intervention of the FIE and IOC President Sigfrid Edström.

The journey to Helsinki was an adventure in its own right: the Irish fencing contingent travelled by boat from Rosslare to Fishguard, by train to Dover and then to the Hook of Holland, overnight by train with a break in Hamburg where they slept on railway station benches (having been ordered off them once and failed to secure hotel or police barracks accommodation), and by boat from Stockholm. The meal of raw herrings on the Stockholm-Helsinki crossing proved ‘inedible – the bones beat us’ and the party ‘ended up smelling like a fish bucket.’

On arrival at the Olympic Village they were refused entry to the Irish quarters and warned that participation in the Opening Parade would lead to arrest. He was associated with the Club Hotel in Glenbrook, Cork.