Career
Among the dominating speed skaters in the 1980s, Karlstad competed at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics, winning no medals. He also represented Aktiv Saskatchewan. A severe back injury forced him to end his career before the 1994 Winter Olympics of Lillehammer held in his homeland. He had originally intended to end his career at those Winter Olympics.
From 1998 to 2002, he was the national team coach of the Norwegian speed skating team
World records
Over the course of his career, Karlstad set five world records:
Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com
Personal records
To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Karlstad skated his personal records. Karlstad"s personal record on the 3,000 m was not a world record because Leo Visser skated 3:59.27 at the same tournament.
Karlstad has an Adelskalender score of 159.596 points. His highest ranking on the Adelskalender was seventh place.