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Noa-Lynn van Leuven, of the Netherlands, throws during the 2025 Betfred World Matchplay in Blackpool, England
Noa-Lynn van Leuven said the World Darts Federation's new gender eligibility policy "does affect me personally."
Dutch transgender darts champion Noa-Lynn van Leuven has denounced the World Darts Federation's recent decision to ban trans women from the women's category.
The 28-year-old acknowledged the international governing body's new gender eligibility policy in a statement posted to Instagram on Friday, noting that "this decision does affect me personally — though, thankfully, not too severely at this point in time. But still, it hurts."
"Once again, it’s a loss for the trans community in sports. And that breaks my heart," van Leuven wrote. "As a trans person in the darts world, I know how vital inclusion is — not just on paper, but in practice. It’s disheartening to see yet another policy framed around 'fairness' that ultimately results in exclusion, without truly considering the people behind the labels."
The WDF officially released the new policy last Monday, creating a "female" category designated "for those participants recorded female at birth, and within definition of female under this policy, which includes females who wish to transition to men, but not undergoing hormone treatment." Trans women and trans men who are on hormone replacement therapy are instead allowed to compete in a separate but equal open category.
The organization claimed to implement the rule for "equal opportunity." Darts, like pool, fishing, dancing, and chess, is an activity where gender offers no competitive advantage, yet all have still implemented bans against trans competitors.
A comprehensive review of several studies on trans participation in sports under their gender identity also found that trans athletes, post transition, are "more similar to their gender identity." It noted that both transgender and cisgender athletes show great variations in ability.
Van Leuven, who has won several titles in both the women's and open category, has been prohibited from competing in WDF events since September, when the federation's members first voted to implement the ban. She spoke out against the rule at the time, saying that she and other trans athletes were being "cancelled." Van Leuven has been competing in Professional Darts Corporation events.
"My heart goes out to all the athletes impacted by this," she continued. "We remain visible. We keep going."
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