Carl grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey. As a boy, he competed on a local track and field team coached by his parents. By the end of his high school years, he had become a star athlete. 

In 1983 Carl won three gold medals at the World Track and Field Championships. At the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, California, Carl equaled Jesse Owens’s feats in the 1936 Berlin Olympics by winning gold medals in the long jump, 100 meters, 200 meters, and the 4 × 100-meter relay. In 1988 at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Carl won gold medals in the 100 meters and the long jump and a silver in the 200 meters. He was the first Olympic athlete to win consecutive long-jump gold medals. This was one of an extended series of consecutive long-jump victories for Carl that occurred over several years during the 1980s. 

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, Carl won a third consecutive gold medal in the long jump and another gold medal in the 4 × 100-meter relay. His gold medal in the long jump in 1996, at age 35, increased his Olympic career totals to nine gold medals and one silver. In 1997 Carl retired from competition. Two years later, he was named Sportsman of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.