This paper proposes a new multi-task synchronization scheme for packet mode orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals in multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmission systems; it targets high-rate wireless LANs that offer over 100 Mbit/s. In addition, this paper introduces a packet format for MIMO-OFDM signals that ensures backward compatibility with IEEE 802.11a. The proposed synchronization scheme has simple open-loop construction and consists of automatic frequency control (AFC), symbol timing detection, MIMO channel estimation, and phase tracking. AFC and symbol timing detection are carried out in the time-domain. After OFDM demodulation, the proposed scheme performs MIMO channel estimation and phase tracking in the frequency-domain. Considering all of the above synchronization tasks, we evaluate the packet error rate (PER) performance using the IEEE 802.11 TGn-defined channel model-D and model-E. In channel model-D with the RMS delay spread = 50 ns, the proposed scheme shows superior performance; it suppress the required Eb/N0 degradation to within 0.4 dB with 1000 byte packets compared to the performance achieved if only MIMO channel estimation is considered. Moreover, in channel model-E with the RMS delay spread = 100 ns, it is found that the proposed scheme degrades the required Eb/N0 only by approximately 1.5 dB compared to the MIMO channel estimation only case, even if the packet length is 1000 bytes with 64QAM and coding-rate = 7/8.