<P> The Winter Olympics has been hosted on three continents by twelve different countries . The Games have been held four times in the United States (in 1932, 1960, 1980 and 2002); three times in France (in 1924, 1968 and 1992); and twice each in Austria (1964, 1976), Canada (1988, 2010), Japan (1972, 1998), Italy (1956, 2006), Norway (1952, 1994), and Switzerland (1928, 1948). Also, the Games have been held just once each in Germany (1936), Yugoslavia (1984), Russia (2014) and South Korea (2018). The IOC has selected Beijing, China, to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and the host of the 2026 Winter Olympics will be selected in September 2019 . As of 2018, no city in the southern hemisphere has applied to host the cold - weather - dependent Winter Olympics, which are held in February at the height of the southern hemisphere summer . </P> <P> To date, twelve countries have participated in every Winter Olympic Games--Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States . Six of those countries have earned medals at every Winter Olympic Games--Austria, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States . The 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 and Germany . </P> <P> 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 have winter sports, specifically figure skating, added to the Olympic programme but was unsuccessful until the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom . Four figure skating events were contested, at which Ulrich Salchow (10 - time world champion) and Madge Syers won the individual titles . </P> <P> Three years later, Italian count Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux proposed that the IOC stage a week of winter sports included as part of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden . The organisers opposed this idea because they desired to protect the integrity of the Nordic Games and were concerned about a lack of facilities for winter sports . </P>

Who came up with the idea of winter olympics