“I hope you die”: trans woman Noa-Lynn van Leuven storms the darts world, but not everyone is happy with that | Darts
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She is taking the darts world by storm and last weekend she became the first woman to ever win a Challenge Tour tournament. And yet Noa-Lynn van Leuven faces countless negative reactions because the 27-year-old Dutch woman is a trans woman. A competitor even wrote an extensive argument to ban her from women’s darts. “The reactions are becoming more and more intense. It seems like people have to comment.”
Noa-Lynn van Leuven turned the darts world upside down last weekend. She was the first woman ever to win a Challenge Tour tournament in which both men and women can participate. In the final in Hildesheim, Germany against Tytus Kanik, she achieved the crowning glory with an average of 100+.
The reactions poured in, the British newspapers – where darts is immensely popular – made the headlines above. Because of her great performance, but also and sometimes especially because the 27-year-old Dutch woman is a trans woman. And that is precisely why, says Van Leuven among our colleagues at the AD, the reactions she received were not always warm.
It seems like people have to comment. They immediately have the reflex: well, we can go again.
Noa-Lynn van Leuven
“I just want to do my thing. But it seems like people have to comment. They often don’t even read what is written. They immediately have the reflex: So, we can go again. I am now doing better, but the reactions are becoming more and more intense. While I see myself as the first woman to win a Challenge Tour tournament,” says Van Leuven, who started a transition process as a 17-year-old teenager. A choice that she herself described as choosing between living and not living.
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Van Leuven receives support from many colleagues and the PDC. And she also wants to focus on the positive messages. But can’t be blind to the negativity. Because what she sometimes gets forwarded or even face to face undergoes is hard. ‘You don’t belong at such a tournament’ and ‘I hope you die’ are some of the offers prior to the World Matchplay for women last year. Critics also look for reasons why trans women would have an advantage. Multiple World Cup participant Deta Hedman wrote an extensive argument against trans women in women’s darts. She stated, among other things, that trans women do not experience menstrual complaints, and therefore have an advantage on the oche, and referred to various studies.
Van Gerwen
Van Leuven: “Yes, that did something to me. We are always looking for new points. Then everyone goes wild. Am I afraid that someone will one day refuse to play against me, as happened in snooker? Something like that is in the back of my mind. I don’t know what it would do to me. You can say: ‘thank you, then I’ll be one round further’, but yes… We all want to do what we like: play darts without hassle.”
Van Leuven mainly wants to answer with the arrows. Because she can dream. She now sits ninth on the Challenge Tour Order of Merit – the overall ranking of all Challenge Tour tournaments. At the end of the year, the best two can go to the World Cup in Ally Pally: “Play against Van Gerwen. That would be wonderful, wouldn’t it?”
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