Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002 2001, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) had signed an agreement that would ensure that the staging of the Paralympic Games is automatically included in the bid for the Olympic Games. The agreement came into effect at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, and the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver. However, the Salt Lake 2002 Organizing Committee, chose to follow the practice of "one bid, one city" already at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, with one Organizing Committee for both Games. Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter
Winter Olympic Games only country to have earned a gold medal at every Winter Olympics is the United States. Norway leads the all-time medal table for the Winter Olympics both on number of gold and overall medals, followed by the United States, Germany, and the former Soviet Union. A predecessor, the Nordic Games, were organised by General Viktor Gustaf Balck in Stockholm, Sweden in 1901 and were held again in 1903 and 1905 and then every fourth year thereafter until 1926. Balck was a charter member of the IOC and a close friend of Olympic Games founder Pierre de Coubertin. He attempted to