Transgender darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven has sparked outrage after winning the PDC Women’s Series – prompting two of her female team mates to resign and tennis ace Martina Navratilova to say women have the ‘short end of the stick’.
At event two of the PDC Women’s Series 2024 in Wigan, the 27-year-old defeated World No 1 Beau Greaves in the quarter-finals before besting Fallon Sherrock in the semis 5-3.
Facing off against Ireland’s Katie Sheldon in the final van Leuven triumphed 5-2 to claim £2,000 in prize money.
The victory comes just a week after she made history by becoming the first trans woman to win a PDC Tour event on the Challenge Tour in Hildesheim, Germany.
Outraged by the win, 18-time Grand Slam tennis champion Martina Navratilova said: ‘No male bodies in women’s sports please – not even in darts.’
Posting on social media platform X, Martina added: ‘Again – women get the short end of the stick. And it stinks.’
Meanwhile, two of Van Leuven’s Dutch compatriots have left their national team in protest following Saturday’s win.
Anca Zijlstra revealed she was stepping away ‘with pain in my heart’ – before world number two Aileen de Graaf quit hours later in vowing to no longer represent the Netherlands.
Zijlstra, 50, wrote on Facebook: ‘That moment when you’re embarrassed to come out for the Dutch team, because a biological man is playing on the women’s team, it’s time to go.
‘I have tried to accept this but I can’t approve or validate this.
‘I think that in sports there should be an equal and fair playing field. I hope with all my heart and for all women in sports that people come to their senses.’
De Graaf, 33, said: ‘If someone doesn’t feel good in the body they were born in, I encourage everyone to change that and be happy. I just don’t think it’s right for a biological man to throw for the women or vice-versa. It’s either mixed or not.’
Facing both male and female competition, van Leuven beat seven other competitors on the way to the final before starring in the event’s showpiece and clinching victory.
VICTORY FOR VAN LEUVEN! 🇳🇱
Noa-Lynn van Leuven clinches her maiden PDC Women's Series title in Wigan! 🏆
Van Leuven overcomes some late double trouble to defeat Irish youngster Katie Sheldon in the Event Two final! pic.twitter.com/fEnlFzMQk3
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 23, 2024
Van Leuven claimed £2,500 in prize money and further ranking points that move her up to seventh place on the PDC Challenge Tour Order of Merit.
She previously made history as the first trans woman to appear in a televised PDC event in last year’s Women’s World Matchplay.
After joining the Women’s Series in 2022 the Dutch player explained that she might not be alive today if had she not transitioned the previous year.
‘I think if I didn’t have the transition, I wouldn’t be here anymore,’ she told the PA news agency. ‘The last two years before I transitioned were terrible for me, I was depressed, I wasn’t having fun in life.
‘I didn’t have anything to live for, I wasn’t in a good space. Then I realised I am trans, I should do something with that or I am not going to make anything out of my life.
‘Now I am happy again and I have so much to live for. I really love darts, I love playing it, I love meeting new people and travelling and that is all possible because of darts.’
However, van Leuven’s inclusion on the Women’s Series has proven contentious among some of her contemporaries with Deta Hedman calling for transgender women to be banned from playing in ranked women’s tournaments.
