Noa-Lynn van Leuven said her ban from the Women’s Series has brought back traumatic childhood memories, but she insists she is “not done” with darts.
History-making Van Leuven is no longer eligible after changes by the Darts Regulation Authority [DRA] earlier this month, which now state that transgender women cannot compete in women’s events.
The rules were changed after the governing body undertook a review of its policy last year, commissioning a report from academic developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton, whose findings concluded that “multiple, small-magnitude sex differences accumulate to generate male advantage over females in darts.”
Van Leuven says it “changed everything” for her, and it was news she received without warning by email a day before it became public.
“It brings up childhood memories of people not accepting me for who I am or what I am,” the 29-year-old from the Netherlands told the Press Association.
“It happened in middle school. It happened at kindergarten. It happened. And it’s just something that keeps coming back.
“It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I’m not going to tell you it wasn’t, but I guess every year has been like this.
“Every year something happens, and every time I crawl out of the big hole I get pushed in, I keep coming back.
“This one really sucks. And I truly still don’t get it. I just don’t believe darts really is a ‘gender-affected sport’ as they call it, especially with the points that they’re coming up with.
“It feels like the decision is influenced by gender-critical perspectives, which I strongly disagree with.
“If you’re a biological male, you should have advantages in being taller, having longer arms, whatever. But take a look at who has been taking every title in this game? Phil Taylor, [Luke] Littler now. Neither of them is above 180cm.
“So, I just don’t get it. It changed everything for me, and I found out about it without any real warning, which made it even harder to process.”
Her argument that men do not have a physical advantage was given more fuel by Beau Greaves winning a Pro Tour event last month in Milton Keynes, becoming the first woman to secure a PDC Tour ranking title.
Van Leuven does not want to politicize the victory and says her contemporary deserves to bask in her “amazing” success.
She has competed alongside Greaves on the Women’s Series since 2022, which was her route to history as she became the first trans player to qualify for the World Championship and Grand Slam of Darts.
Without a main PDC Tour card, she is now restricted to second-tier Challenge Tour events or World Darts Federation competitions.
The PDC, which runs the tournaments, is bound to the DRA’s rules and has offered Van Leuven counselling in the wake of the change.
“I just want to try to enjoy the game again,” she added. “I just want to improve myself this year and maybe hope I get a Tour card for next year.
“Hopefully, I can still find enough opportunities to do that.
“I’m not done with this game, but it still hurts, and all my goals for this whole year, they’re gone, and there’s not a lot of time left to get new big goals.”
