Alexandra Palace embraces Noa-Lynn van Leuven with noise as World Darts Championship’s first transgender player
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Van Leuven made history as she stepped on to the stage at Ally Pally before falling to defeat by fellow Dutch player Kevin Doets. As Noa-Lynn van Leuven approached the stage, red hair flowing and lipstick shimmering under the lights, it was hard to know what the reaction would be.
![[Van Leuven approaches the stage for her World Championship debut]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/13/SEI233556723.jpg)
Throughout the long history of sporting crowds, from the Colosseum of Rome to this cathedral of darts just off the north circular, at their most basic level they can choose a binary response to their environment, with cheers or with boos. How would the World Championship at Alexandra Palace respond to its first transgender competitor?.
![[Van Leuven prepares to walk on to the stage]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/14/SEI233557179.jpg)
A few minutes earlier there had been a gentle hum of boos as Van Leuven’s face was displayed on screen for a pre-match interview. There were a few wolf whistles as she stepped to her mark at the start of the runway. But if there were any murmurings of disapproval as she stepped on stage, they were drowned out firstly by her walkout song, Euphoria by Loreen, and then by the majority of giddy fans.
![[Van Leuven was eventually seen off by Kevin Doets]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/14/SEI233557475.jpg)
Perhaps the people sitting around this collection of folding tables in Alexandra Palace are a useful bellwether for the great British public, distilled down to its most revered cultural tradition: a giant stag do. It was 1pm on a Tuesday afternoon and most of the room was already half-cut, when in walked a transgender athlete. And, broadly, she was welcomed.
