Lillehammer in Norway, meanwhile, won is bid to host the 2018 IBSF Par-Sport World Championships. 

Lake Placid beat its only rival St Moritz in Switzerland by 24 votes to 19 at the IBSF Congress in Salt Lake City. 

Lake Placid hosted the 1932 and 1980 Olympics and has also provided the setting for bobsleigh and skeleton World Championships a total of 10 times to date. 

The American city, in New York, first hosted the Championships in 1949 and subsequently in 1961, 1969, 1973 1978, 1983, 2003, 2009 and 2012. 

It also held the Skeleton World Championships in 1997 when that event was held on its own. 

The outstanding performance at the 2012 World Championships on the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run came from America's Steve Holcomb, winner of gold medals in the two-man and four-man bob. 

Holcomb was found dead in Lake Placid in May. 

A minute's silence was held to mark Holcomb's death before the start of the Congress. 

Besides the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games and the 10 World Championships, the track was also used for the only winter edition of the Goodwill Games in 2000. 

The third and most recent version of the track was completed in 2000.

In 2010 the it was listed on America's National Register of Historic Places.

This year's IBSF World Championships took place in Königssee in Germany after moved at late notice from Sochi, where they had originally been awarded, due to allegations involving Russian competitors in state-sponsored doping.

There will be no World Championships next year due to the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

The 2019 edition is due to take place in Whistler in Canada and 2020 Altenberg in Germany.

Lillehammer was the only bidder for the IBSF Par-Sport World Championships.

The Lillehammer Olympic Sliding Centre is the most northerly in the world and the only artificially iced one in Scandinavia. 

It was built for the 1994 Winter Olympics and is located about 15  kilometres north-west of Lillehammer. 

In 2016, Lillehammer hosted the Winter Youth Olympic Games.

The first IBSF Par-Sport World Championships were held at Park City in the US when 19 athletes from nine nations took part.

This year's event took place in St Moritz when competitors from 11 countries competed.

The importance of the Championships is set to grow each year as the sport prepares for its debut on the Paralympic programme at Beijing in 2022. 

Another event awarded today was the 2018 IBSF Congress to Rome. 

It will be the 13th time the Italian Winter Sports Federation has hosted the IBSF Congress  since 1950 in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The last IBSF congress in Italy was 2008 in Chianciano Terme in the Tuscany region.