The direction of travel on the rights of female athletes to have their own women's category that by nature kept at bay the unfair play inherent in male biology, was screamingly obvious, yet American college sports bosses resisted the truth. Until now.

Transwomen, who are biological males, a fact of nature that is critical in sport, can no longer compete in the women's category, according to the “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump this week.

It makes sense, regardless of any political sensitivities and even anger among the many who disagree with the direction of travel in the States at a time when a court has had to intervene to block an unelected billionaire head of private enterprise put in charge of key aspects of the public purse - with a remit to slash budgets but a position that carries no direct accountability to the electorate - from accessing the financial data of millions of American citizens.

If you had to guess out of all the many orders signed at the White House which one will result in thumbs-up or thumbs-down consequences, the backing of women's sport as a fair and safe haven for female athletes is likely to get the biggest-lasting thumbs up of any of them.

It took less than a day for the NCAA to get real: it would embrace the new policy, ending years of poor leadership that amounted to a vast act of mass discrimination against female athletes, the head honcho announced after all those seasons of denial.

And, doubtless, it took less than a day for the International Olympic Committee to read the writing on the wall: it will also need to review its policies and guidelines of discrimination against female athletes... while keeping an eye on the potential for boycott.