Transgender darts star Noa-Lynn van Leuven was left on the brink of tears as she delivered an emotional statement confirming that she had been ‘retired’ from the sport against her will following the introduction of new regulations.
This week has seen a controversial new guideline introduced by the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) which bans trans athletes from competing in women-only events.
Van Leuven, who made history as the first transgender player to feature at the World Championships, was distraught as she shared her thoughts on the decision on social media.
‘I just got an email,’ Van Leuven began in the short message to camera. ‘Apparently, I just got retired.
‘Not by choice, but because I’m no longer allowed to compete. The DRA just decided that trans women are no longer allowed in women’s events. Which basically means I’m out.
‘I’ve worked so damn hard for years just to get here – I showed up, I competed, I respected the sport, every game, every single day. And now, with just one decision, I am being told I don’t belong any more.
Noa-Lynn van Leuven has shared her distress at being all but banned from competing in darts
‘This isn’t just about me,’ Van Leuven continued. ‘This is another huge hit for the trans community, especially after recent decisions made by the IOC.
‘Every day it’s getting harder and harder for trans people to just exist, to compete. If you think this stops with me, it doesn’t. We just want to be.’
The Duchess captioned the video: ‘On the inside I’m crying. The fluoxetine (a prescription SSRI) just hides it.
‘Not my choice. Not just my story.
‘This isn’t the end. I’m just going back to the drawing board. I’m not done fighting’.
Van Leuven has competed on the PDC Women’s Series tour since 2022, and has six event wins to her name.
Most recently, the Netherlands star represented her country at the Four Nations Cup.
During her time as a player on the tour however, Van Leuven has been outspoken about the challenges she has faced competing on the tour, with the star describing feeling at times like she was ‘running into a massive concrete wall’.
Van Leuven initially found herself sanctioned last year when the World Darts Federation (WDF) banned trans women from competing in women’s-only matchplay.
She had previously come under fire from her compatriots Anca Zijlstra and Aileen de Graaf, who pulled out of the Dutch national team because they did not want to play alongside ‘a biological’ man – a statement Van Leuven found ‘incredibly painful’.
Female darts star Deta Hedman also later withdrew from the PDC Women’s Series after being drawn against Van Leuven at the quarter-finals stage.
‘I’m not playing against a man in a woman’s body,’ she told German publication Bild at the time.
‘I haven’t experienced reactions as intense as back then,’ Van Leuven said of the drama surrounding her inclusion in The Netherlands’ squad in an interview last December. ‘Everything I’d been through before suddenly resurfaced.
The 29-year-old made history as the first trans athlete to compete at the World Championship of Darts (pictured in 2024)
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‘At a certain point I was convinced that all people were scary and s***ty. I just had nothing left to fall back.’
However Van Leuven has earned the support of some of darts’ biggest names. At the time, Michael van Gerwen, described the WDF’s decision to ban her as ‘heartbreaking’.
‘She does what she does and she can play terrific darts,’ the three-time world champion said.
‘Let her play nice. For me, there’s never been a discussion but I don’t make the rules.
‘The PDC has people who go over them. They can never make the right choice anyway. If they go left, people say they should go right and vice-versa. Everyone has an opinion about it, but there is no point at all in continuing to argue.’
In her statement, Van Leuven referenced the IOC’s decision last month to ban transgender athletes from competition.
The Olympic governing body announced the introduction of mandatory testing, claiming that their once-in-a-lifetime SRY gene test will help ‘protect fairness, safety and integrity in the female category’.
