Transgender darts star Noa-Lynn van Leuven beats England’s Beau Greaves to qualify for World Darts Championship
NOA-LYNN VAN LEUVEN will become the first transgender player to compete at the World Darts Championship.
The Dutch star won the 21st PDC Women’s Series in Leicester on Saturday.
It means that Van Leuven has guaranteed a place in the draw for the Alexandra Palace in December after her fourth title of the year.
Van Leuven delivered an impressive day of results with wins over four World Champions.
She beat Trina Gulliver 4-2, Mikuru Suzuki 4-1 and Lisa Ashton 5-4 en route to the final before an impressive 5-3 victory over Beau Greaves.
That included a stunning average of 109.64.
Van Leuven’s appearance at the Ally Pally showpiece will complete a rollercoaster year for the 28-year-old.
Amid consistent success at the oche, she says she’s been bullied at every tournament and “gone trough hell”.
Van Leuven even had to face claims she transitioned to try to gain an advantage.
She labelled such allegations “totally untrue” and explained how hurtful the suggestion was.
Van Leuven told Dutch TV show Sophie & Jeroen: “I have never seen anyone who has gone through the years of misery of transition only to perform better afterwards.”
She passed rigorous tests to first play in women’s darts two years ago.
And she soon established herself, reaching the quarter-finals of events 13 and 14, losing to Greaves and Laura Turner respectively.
Then in 2023 Van Leuven was the first trans woman ever to compete in a televised PDC tournament.
Greaves whitewashed her 4-0 in that Women’s World Matchplay first-round clash.
But Van Leuven’s results have improved massively this year, including victory on her debut at event six of the PDC Challenge Tour series.
Now she’s set for the biggest darts stage of them all in two months’ time.
Van Leuven has stressed she just wants to be seen and treated as any other athlete.
She said: “All we want is to be ourselves. As trans people, we want to be respected.
“I’m Noa-Lynn, I’m a woman and I just want to do what I love to do and happen to be good at, and that’s darts.”
But she told Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant of one of her worst experiences – when everyone in a room started clapping after she lost.
She added: “I felt very small…I really had to withdraw for a while. …I don’t wish anyone the hell I went through.”