Who is Noa-Lynn van Leuven? Transgender darts player set for World Championship debut
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The 28-year-old is set to make history as the first transgender player to appear at the World Darts Championship, but her success on the women’s circuit has been met with hostility. When Noa-Lynn van Leuven walks onto the stage at Alexandra Palace, the 28-year-old will make history as the first transgender darts player to compete at the PDC World Championship.
![[Noa-Lynn van Leuven has made waves on the women’s darts tour]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/13/19/GettyImages-2162889659.jpg)
Van Leuven’s debut at the tournament will also represent a personal journey of self-acceptance and perseverance in which the sport of darts has, for her, played a significant role. Van Leuven just wants to play, though her appearance at the World Championship will also come alongside wider attention and outside noise.
The Dutchwoman accepts that; it is a reality she has had to get used to since first competing as a transgender player on the Women’s Series in 2022. But, while the spotlight is on her, Van Leuven wants her story to be represented correctly. There can be consequences when this does not happen. An element of Van Leuven’s career, which has been heavily reported ahead of the World Championship, is the hostility she has sometimes faced when competing against other women. Or, rather, when she started beating other women at tournaments.
Before her debut at the World Championship, Van Leuven told Sky Sports that details around her transition journey have been misrepresented. “They’re like ‘Noa-Lynn transitioned in 2022’. I did not. I transitioned about nine, 10 years ago,” she told Sky. “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.”.
