VAN LEUVEN SAYS DARTS BAN REOPENED CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

NOA LYNN VAN LEUVEN admits her ban from women’s darts events has left her ‘hurt’ and reopened childhood trauma.

The Duchess is no longer eligible to compete on the Women’s Series after the Darts Regulation Authority introduced new rules preventing transgender women from entering female events. 

As part of the process, the governing body commissioned a report from developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton, which concluded that “multiple, small-magnitude sex differences accumulate to generate male advantage over females in darts.” 

Van Leuven revealed the decision “changed everything” for her and that she was informed by email just a day before the ruling was made public, without any prior warning. 

She told the Press Association: “It brings up childhood memories of people not accepting me for who I am or what I am. 

“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.” 

Van Leuven also pointed to some of the sport’s greatest players while defending her position. 

She added: “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.” 

Despite the setback, Van Leuven insists she remains determined to continue competing and hopes to earn a PDC Tour Card in the future. 

She continued: “I just want to try to enjoy the game again. 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.” 

Van Leuven made history as the first Dutch transgender woman to play at the Worlds in 2024.

The 29-year-old also featured at Ally Pally last December but was knocked out in the first round after losing 3-0 to Peter Wright. 

Image by Taylor Lanning.