I just want to play dart:. Van leuven on scrutiny, world nerves and backing herself.

Transgender darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven opens up in an exclusive interview on her transition journey and how she has rediscovered her love for darts in the process

While the world focuses on her as the first transgender darts player to play against men in the PDC World Darts Championship, for Noa-Lynn van Leuven her story is simply about finding joy in playing the game she loves.

Her accomplishment comes off the back of a hugely successful two years on the Women’s Series where she has won four events, most recently the Women’s Series 21 in Leicester, and appeared in the Grand Slam of Darts.

But this success has brought an unhealthy dose of controversy, including being booed at the Grand Slam of Darts in November, and inflated attention from the press.

 

For the 28-year-old, this media coverage misrepresents the full truth of her experience of transitioning, which dates back over 10 years and has nothing to do with her competitive darts career.

“With everything I do, there’s always people that want to make an article about it. And some are positive, and that’s really nice,” Van Leuven said.

“But some of them have been a bit ****. And that’s annoying. Because a lot of newspapers, they don’t reach out to me to talk to me.

“They’re like ‘Noa-Lynn transitioned in 2022’. I did not. I transitioned about nine, 10 years ago.

“They make it look like, okay, Noa-Lynn transitioned in 2021, a year before she started appearing on the women’s tournament. That’s not true.

“They’re almost making it look like, OK, she wasn’t good enough with the men, and now she’s just going to do this.”

Ultimately, Van Leuven insists she is in the sport to “beat the best” no matter what gender and cannot understand the claim that anyone, let alone she, would “transition to just be better in the sport”.

Growing up in the Netherlands, Van Leuven spent time down at the local pub watching her parents play darts on a regular basis, with Dutchmen Raymond van Barneveld and later Michael van Gerwen inspiring her family.

It was at the age of 12 that Van Leuven started to take darts seriously and entered tournaments in her home country.

Although it was in these tournaments that she discovered her natural talent for darts, the mental focus required to excel at the game took its toll.

“I wasn’t happy with myself and I think darts being a mental game, you’ve got to be happy and be yourself,” she said.

This led Van Leuven on her own journey of discovery and ultimately to the decision to transition, with darts taking a backseat at this time.

It was only when she was happy in herself that she found it possible to return to darts, recently falling back in love with the game, which is something news coverage of her career all too often ignores.

“A lot of media is also making clickbait out of it,” she added.

“Whenever I do something, or maybe I fart at a tournament, people are going to be like, ‘Yes, we’ve got a new article about Noa-Lynn, and it’s going to make her look really bad.’

“Just let me play darts. I just want to play darts.

“Ten years ago, I didn’t play darts anymore. I lost fun in it.

“When I was actually happy again, I was actually like, OK, I guess I’m missing something in life.

“And that’s the moment where I was like, OK, maybe I am missing darts. I think it was 2020, 2021, something like that.”