Trans Darts Star Noa-Lynn Van Leuven Ousted After New Ruling
A new ruling bans trans women from women’s darts, forcing history-making player Noa-Lynn Van Leuven out of competition
Featured Image: Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images
Another day, another governing body deciding that trans women in sports are the problem that urgently needs solving.
This time, it’s darts.
Dutch player Noa-Lynn van Leuven—the first trans woman to qualify for the World Championships—has effectively been forced into retirement after the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) announced a new rule banning trans women from competing in its women’s events, effective immediately.
The DRA, which governs the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), said in a statement “only biological females should be eligible” to compete in women’s tournaments under its rules. Translation: if you’re a trans woman, you’re out.
Leuven addressed the news in an Instagram post. “I’ve worked so damn hard,” she said.
She continued: “Every day it’s getting harder and harder for trans people just to exist…If you think it stops with me, it doesn’t. We just want to be.”
Before the ban, Leuven was building a legitimate, hard-earned career. Since 2022, the 29-year-old has won six titles and steadily climbed the ranks. She made her debut at the 2022 PDC Women’s Series, reaching the quarter finals. In 2023, she became the first trans woman to compete in a televised PDC tournament. By 2024, she made history again as the first trans woman to qualify for the World Championship, where she lost 3-1 to Kevin Doets.
In other words, she did exactly what athletes are told to do: train, compete, improve, repeat.
Still, her presence was treated less like a milestone and more like a controversy waiting to happen. Opponents forfeited matches rather than play her. British darts player Deta Hedman withdrew from multiple competitions after learning she would face Leuven. At a 2025 tournament, protestors greeted her with a banner reading: “He’s a man.”
The backlash didn’t stop at tournaments. It followed her home, into her phone, and into her sense of safety.
In an interview with UK News Outlet, I, Leuven described being flooded with messages that ranged from bullying to explicit death threats. At one point, she said she hesitated outside a public bathroom at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after receiving threats about being seen in a women’s restroom.
These are the stakes behind what governing bodies call “fair competition.”
And yet the conversation keeps circling back to whether she should be allowed to play darts.
Leuven has consistently pushed back on that framing. In previous interviews, she pointed out what feels obvious to anyone who has ever watched the sport: darts is not exactly dependent on physical dominance.
“I don’t see any difference in male vs female in darts,” she said.
She also called out how media coverage amplifies the issue beyond reality. “It’s not like trans people are winning everything but the media are making it look like it.”
She continued, “Everywhere a trans person does something, it’s world news. If they win something or they fart somewhere, it’s big news.”
Despite the ruling, Leuven isn’t framing this as a quiet exit. “This isn’t the end,” she wrote in her Instagram caption. “I’m not done fighting.”
Still, the rapid impact is clear: one of the sport’s most visible players has been displaced, not because of performance, but because of policy. Darts is just the latest arena where trans women are being told again that their participation is up for debate.
