[1] Competing in two Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of seventh in the individual sprint event at Turin in 2006.

At the 2009 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, Kjølstad won the sprint prologue before American Andrew Newell and Russian Alexei Petukhov.

In the quarter-finals, Kjølstad progressed alongside Swiss World Cup leader Dario Cologna.

Then, Kjølstad defeated Nikolay Morilov in the semi-final and went to the final heat, being a medal favourite.

At the sprint final, Vigen Hattestad defeated Kjølstad who grabbed the silver medal.