Noa-Lynn van Leuven participated in the Grand Slam of Darts, a world championship that took place in Wolverhampton, England November 9-17, becoming the first out transgender competitor ever to play in the event.
Van Leuven has placed in the quarter-finals and semi-finals in several other darts competitions also organized by the Professional Darts Association (PDC) including the Women’s Series, Women’s World Matchplay, and Dutch Open since 2022. She didn’t win at the Grand Slam, listing a match 5-0 against Dutch competitor Michael van Gerwen.
The Grand Slam of Darts is a mixed-gender invitational tournament for high-achieving players, with mostly male competitors but is open to women. The only other woman competing was Beau Greaves, a British player who van Leuven defeated last month to secure her place in the tournament. Greaves said, “Fair play to her, she played really well and she deserved the win.”
Other women players have not been so fair-minded. Two women departed the Dutch darts team because they didn’t want to play with a trans woman, and British player Deta Hedman also refused to compete against van Leuven in two tournaments this year, calling her a man.
Van Leuven says she has been bullied at every competition since her transition in 2021, and reports severe social media harassment, including death threats. At one event, someone threw a tennis ball at her that hit her with full force in the face.
“[The messages] still haunt me to this day,” van Leuven says of the abuse. “It has impacted me massively.”
The PDC stands by including trans players and van Leuven says the security they’ve provided her has been helpful. She was met with boos at the Grand Slam, but the men she played against defended her. Van Gerwen comforted van Leuven at their match, telling her to ignore the boos.
“She does what she does and she can play terrific darts,” van Gerwen says. “Let her play nice. For me, there’s never been a discussion, but I don’t make the rules.”
Van Leuven just wants to play and she says the media plays a large role in the scrutiny on her.
“It’s not like trans people are winning everything but the media are making it look like it,” she says. “Of course, it’s a big topic right now, everywhere a trans person does something, it’s world news.”
British player Luke Humphries also wants van Leuven to be left alone. “Whatever opinion I have, it wouldn’t matter. I just look at her as a darts player,” he says. “She is in the competition on merit, she has not broken any rules, she is doing what she is allowed to do.”
He urges players to just “get on with it and play.”
