Transgender darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven says ban from women’s events brings back childhood trauma

Noa-Lynn van Leuven has revealed that her recent ban from the Women’s Series in darts has triggered painful childhood memories, though she remains resolute, declaring she is “not done” with the sport.

The history-making player is now ineligible to compete following rule changes implemented by the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) last month, which prohibit transgender women from participating in women’s events.

The governing body’s decision came after a review of its policy in 2025, which included a report from academic developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton.

Her findings concluded that “multiple, small-magnitude sex differences accumulate to generate male advantage over females in darts”.

Van Leuven, 29, from the Netherlands, described the news as having “changed everything” for her, a decision she learned about via email just a day before it was made public.

“It brings up childhood memories of people not accepting me for who I am or what I am,” she said.

“It happened in middle school. It happened at kindergarten. It happened. And it’s just something that keeps coming back.”

She added: “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.”

Van Leuven said: “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.”

She challenged the notion of a physical advantage, arguing: “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 was given more fuel by Beau Greaves’ recent victory in a Pro Tour event in Milton Keynes, making her the first woman to secure a PDC Tour ranking title.

Van Leuven, however, was keen not to politicise Greaves’ success, insisting her contemporary deserved to celebrate her “amazing” achievement.

Van Leuven herself has competed alongside Greaves on the Women’s Series since 2022, a path that led her to become the first trans player to qualify for the World Championship and Grand Slam of Darts.

Without a main PDC Tour card, Van Leuven’s competitive options are now limited to second-tier Challenge Tour events or World Darts Federation competitions. The PDC, which organises the tournaments, is bound by the DRA’s rules and has offered Van Leuven counselling in the wake of the policy change.

Looking ahead, Van Leuven remains determined. “I just want to try to enjoy the game again,” she said. “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 views the decision as symptomatic of broader issues facing the trans community.

“I’m not sure if it would actually help to fight it,” she commented. “You’ve got the court ruling on trans women not being women in the UK. If you take a look at America, trans rights are kind of gone everywhere, and it’s only getting worse and worse. It’s not easy to fight this at this moment.

“It’s not only happening in sports, but also take women’s restrooms. I don’t know any trans woman who actually transitioned just to go to the women’s room. They just want to be themselves. They just want to live their own lives. They’re not scary, they’re not angry human beings.

“I hear a lot of people talking really bad about trans people, like they’re not even human beings, like they’re some sort of object. But yeah, we’re human beings. We also have feelings.”

When contacted, DRA reiterated that its decision was made after extensive legal advice and was not taken lightly.