She had given it her all and went down on her knees before laying down in the snow after the finish line.
Already at 2.1 km, Karlsson had a lead of four seconds over then runner-up Anne Kjersti Kalvå.
Then Karlsson pulled away during the race to lose seven seconds at the end to Krista Pärmäkoski who finished strong and finished second after being fourth with 1.7 km to go.
There had been a change in the weather and yesterday's 18 degrees and sun had changed to six degrees and rain in German Oberstdorf.
To the results.