We have heard much recently during the World Athletics Championships, in Moscow, thanks to Russia's mouthy Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, about the new anti-gay legislation which now threatens to put next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi on a slippery slope.

A number of athletes competing in Moscow have publicly taken stands against the law, though much to the concern of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which seems more concerned about such "demos" than the anti-gay stance itself.

American Nick Symmonds dedicated his world 800 metres silver medal to his gay and lesbian friends, while Swedish high jumper Emma Green Tregaro painted her fingernails in the colours of the rainbow for her qualifying competition.

Russian icon Yelena Isinbayeva was forced to issue a statement clarifying her comments after attracting widespread criticism for branding Green Tregaro's actions "disrespectful" to Russia. The pole vault champion said she was misunderstood while the Sports Minister now claims the controversy is "an invented problem."

The New Zealand speed skater Blake Skjellerup, a gay rights activist, says he will wear the Rainbow Pin created by London 2012 to promote diversity at last summer's Games during the Winter Olympics.

Emma Green Tregaro was forced to change her rainbow nails to respect
the code of conduct in Moscow

It is anticipated that many of his fellow competitors will join him in protesting regulations that prohibit the promotion of homosexuality.

But here's an intriguing question. Will any footballers do the same at the subsequent 2018 World Cup in Russia and that four years later in Qatar, where similar laws apply?

Like many Islamic nations, Qatar follows Sharia law, which forbids homosexuality between men (though oddly not women). But while the authorities are more relaxed about imposing it than some others in the Middle East and Africa - where it can be a capital offence - the ban on promotion of gay propaganda is still rigidly enforced.

This week Britain's Gay Footballers Support Network (GFSN) will meet with other human rights groups to develop a strategy which puts pressure on world sports bodies such as the IOC and FIFA to not to award major events to the countries which embrace discrimination in any form.

As GFSN chair Chris Basiurski told insidethegames: "We have seen evidence in the past that when the likes of FIFA or the IOC swan in somewhere they may get the rules temporarily suspended but afterwards it reverts to the same situation."

While the IOC is "seeking clarification" from the Russian Government - surely pointing out that discrimination on the grounds of sexuality is against the Olympic charter - it is believed FIFA will actively seek a suspension of anti-gay legislation in both Russia and Qatar for the respective World Cups. FIFA President Sepp Blatter assured Basiurski he was "working on it" when they met during the London Olympics.

However, Basiurski warns: "Relying on a temporary suspension, even if one is possible, could mean missing the chance to create a change in these countries."

He accepts that gay competitors and supporters may have to keep a low profile, "put prudence before politics" and, as Isinbayeva says, "respect the laws of the land".

Actually the thought occurs that criminalising displays of affection between gay people may be rather difficult to enforce in a state like Qatar, where, as I have witnessed there and in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, men can regularly be seen holding hands (though never with women). It is an old Arab custom.

But Basiurski, whose Polish grandmother was interned in a Siberian gulag, adds: "What alarms me is that while the authorities may turn a blind eye they might encourage vigilante groups that won't.

"In Russia I suspect they are using this as a distraction from other domestic issues rather like the Germans did with the Jews. How, long will it be before gay people there will be forced to wear pink triangles?"

That may be overstating things somewhat because as the law stands in Russia homosexuality itself is not illegal, just the proselytising of it, notably to minors.

Vladimir Putin signed the anti-gay bill in June

Lenin had actually decriminalised homosexuality in 1920, making the Soviet Union the first nation to do so. Stalin reversed that edict in 1933. Now Vladimir Putin has authorised a law that bans "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations", imposes fines or imprisonment for anyone participating in a gay rally, and allows for the deportation of foreigners deemed homosexually provocative.

With about 80 per cent of Russian citizens supporting the law, according to opinion polls, the Russian President clearly believes he's on solid ground so don't expect him to give any of it.

After visiting Sochi - a very pleasant mountain-fringed resort on the Black Sea - a sort of Cannes with caviar - I have a souvenir 2014 Winter Olympics rucksack on which it is emblazoned: "Sochi - Gateway To The Future".

So what is that future? The one certainty is that there will be no boycott; neither will the Games be shifted to Vancouver, St Moritz or the dry ski slopes at Brentwood in Essex. The first notion is illogical and the second impracticable.

And don't expect much muscle flexing from the IOC. Human rights have never been high on the agenda of theirs or any world sports governing body's agenda.

If they were, the Olympics would never have been awarded to Berlin, Mexico City, Moscow or Beijing. And did anyone ever question the suitability of Singapore and Malaysia - where harsh flogging is still a standard punishment - for the Youth Olympics and Commonwealth Games respectively?

Remember this is the same IOC that refused a formal request for a minute's silence in London to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Munich Massacre - Israeli athletes slaughtered by the Palestinian terrorist group, Black September. And the one which took no action against Iran when its two-time world champion judoka refused to compete against a Jewish opponent.

Only once has the IOC really bowed to moral pressure - banning apartheid South Africa from the Games from 1964 to 1992. Meantime, African-American 200m medallists Tommie Smith and John Carlos were expelled from the Mexico Games for raising their fists on the podium in the Black Power salute.

The Black Power salute was an act of protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics




Yet I find it curious that it is only sport which stirs so much passion over human rights issues. For example, where is the demand for a boycott of the Moscow Biennale - a world-renowned celebration of international contemporary art next month?

And so to Sochi where the American figure skater Johnny Weir, a latter-day Curry, says he intends to be his flamboyant self at the Olympics, one of numerous gay competitors, coaches and fans – un-closeted or otherwise - who will be there to do their thing. Some media folk, too, like BBC presenter Clare Balding, who will anchor 100 hours of Olympic coverage.

So, whatever Putin may decree, Sochi 2014 will be a rather Gay Games. Just don't spread the word.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.