The 23-year-old Swedish skiing star finished fifth in the New Year’s Eve freestyle sprint, starting 19 seconds behind Swiss sprint winner Nadine Fähndrich in the New Year’s Day race.
Karlsson, who said before the tour that she will lead the races, got off to a flying start and was in the race and overtook Fähndrich after a couple of kilometres. She led large parts of the race but was passed in the closing kilometers and was not enough in the sprint on the run.
Norwegian Tiril Udnes Weng won the race ahead of Finnish Kerttu Niskanen and Karlsson.
Nadine Fähndrich was ninth.