Not only the United States is in celebration mood on this Fourth of July because of its Independence Day, but Russia too. Thousands of Russians roared and jumped into the balmy Black Sea air in the resort town of Sochi as the International Olympic Committee named the southern seaside town host of the 2014 Winter Games. Sochi narrowly beat South Korea's Pyeongchang to give the Russia the right to host a second Olympics after the Summer Games staged in 1980. Hours before the final voting in Guatemala City, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised rich natural snow and no traffic jams when he addressed the IOC meeting. Speaking live for the first time in English, Putin, a keen skier himself, said with its unique climate of springlike weather at the Black Sea resort and cold temperatures in the nearby Krasnaya Polyanna mountains, Sochi was best suited to host the Olympics.
