Noa-Lynn van Leuven was born a man, but today she is one of the best darts players in the world. Not everyone begrudges her success.
Noa-Lynn van Leuven is the fifth best darts player in the world.
Shane Healey / Imago
Noa-Lynn van Leuven is used to shooting sharply. The 27-year-old Dutchwoman is one of the best darts players in the world, she knows how to hit the segments of the target with centimeter precision. A few weeks ago, however, van Leuven became a target himself.
Two teammates from the Dutch national team resigned in March because they refused to play on the same team as van Leuven. At the beginning of May, a British competitor also boycotted a match against van Leuven. What’s going on here?
Van Leuven is a trans athlete; the best in the history of darts. She grew up as a boy, but her male sexual characteristics did not match her perceived gender identity. Van Leuven felt trapped in his own body. She once said in an interview that she was so desperate that she thought about killing herself. At the age of 17, she underwent gender reassignment surgery.
“I refuse to compete against a man”
The new life as a woman and darts gave van Leuven perspective. In 2022 she took part in an international competition for the first time and fought her way up in the following years. A year ago she was ranked 15th in the women’s world rankings, and this spring she moved up to 5th.
However, Van Leuven’s success put the darts scene on notice; some competitors accuse her of having an advantage in competitions. Aileen de Graaf and Anca Zijlstra played with van Leuven on the Netherlands national team. Both are experienced darts players, de Graaf is currently number two in the world.
The mood changed when van Leuven won a Women’s Series game in England in March; de Graaf and Zijlstra then resigned from the national team. Zijlstra wrote on Facebook: “The moment you are ashamed to play for the Dutch team because a biological man plays in the women’s team, it is time to leave.”
Darts, a fringe sport in Switzerland but very popular in Great Britain, suddenly became the center of media interest. Even Australian media reported on the scandal in the Netherlands, and tennis legend and 18-time Grand Slam winner Martina Navratilova also spoke out from the USA. Navratilova wrote on the X platform: “Please no male bodies in women’s sports – not even in darts.”
The debate as to whether trans athletes should be allowed to compete in the women’s category has now reached the darts scene. The criticism of van Leuven sometimes seems absurd. While men have a physical advantage in sports such as swimming, cycling or athletics, darts is about precision, concentration, tactics, mental strength – skills that are independent of gender.
The debate escalated and further escalated at the beginning of May. Van Leuven should have played against England’s Deta Hedman in the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open. Hedman is 64 years old, was the best player in the world for years, and today she is number six in the rankings. But Hedman opted out of the match. She was ill, it was initially said. On Platform X, Hedman then objected. She wrote: “I refuse to compete against a man.”
No fake illness I said I wouldn’t play a man in a ladies event . Don’t listen to @phillbarrs he knows sweet fa, nor does his reliable source .
— Deta Hedman (@Deta132) May 4, 2024
Hedman launched a social media campaign targeting trans people in women’s sports, publishing dozens of posts calling for the “protection of women’s sports.” Thousands of women agreed with her.
Do men have better throwing technique?
At the weekend, Hedman said in an interview with GB News: “Sport cannot be fair and inclusive at the same time. One comes at the expense of the other.” She fought for the rights of women in darts for a long time, but now trans people like van Leuven are endangering these achievements.
The World Darts Association emphasized in a statement that equal opportunities are key in darts; in many tournaments, women and men even compete against each other. As long as there is no significant evidence that trans people have an advantage, the world association does not want to introduce a third category.
The darts regulator requires transgender players to have testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter of blood for at least 12 months before competition and not to change gender identity for at least four years. The trans athlete van Leuven meets these requirements.
Nevertheless, there are voices in the scene that see van Leuven at an advantage. The average scores for women are lower than those for men. Some also claim that men have a more developed imagination, better throwing technique, are more self-confident – and therefore play darts better.
The best Swiss player says: “Darts is purely a matter of the head”
Angela Heinrich sees it differently; The Basel native is the best darts player in Switzerland and captain of the HDC Gelterkinden. She says of herself that she is stronger than the men on her team. And adds: “Darts is purely a matter of the head. Women sometimes lack self-confidence, that’s the only difference between the sexes.”
Another reason for the lower average points for women: For a long time there was a lack of financial resources to support women in darts. The list of darts players is long, that of female darts players is short. But things are slowly changing, there are world championships and tournaments exclusively for women, and the proportion of women is growing.
Van Leuven has so far only commented briefly on the discussion about her participation among the women. She told the Dart News portal that she didn’t want to deal with it any further: “The only thing I regret about this topic is that many people forget that I’m human too.”
In December 2023, however, van Leuven told the British online portal “The Independent” that some of her competitors were apparently trying to get rid of her. Van Leuven said: «And what is the easiest way to do this? To be banned.”