Noa-Lynn van Leuven will make darts history at the World Darts Championships on Tuesday by becoming the first transgender person to perform on stage at Alexandra Palace. In her debut in London, she will face her compatriot Kevin Doets.
“It’s extremely nice to be able to compete and I’m looking forward to it, but I think it’s also exciting,” Van Leuven said Telegraph in preview.
Her baptism of fire at the World Darts Championships comes after an eventful year during which there was much debate over Van Leuven’s admission to the women’s competition. However, the PDC remains unchanged and sees no evidence that Van Leuven has an advantage over women.
“I was very shocked by what appeared on social media, and it was very hard for me too,” says Van Leuven about this difficult period. She decided to seek professional help to make sure she could better cope with these reactions.
“I really haven’t had the best time, again, in over six months. I don’t want to say I’m a master at it, but lately I’ve been reading a lot less and I can laugh better. It’s almost the same. The average “nice dick!” reaction, no one is the first to do this anymore and certainly won’t be the last. The fun is different, but you notice that more and more people are also turning against certain reactions.
Did Van Leuven ever think about throwing darts because of all these reactions? “It happens sometimes,” he admits. ”You think: is this all worth it to me? This only creates problems. But I like this game too much and somewhere it gives me the strength to row against the current. Sometimes it’s more difficult than others. We are clearly here when it comes to acceptance in the world and I hope to do my part to help move that acceptance forward. Fortunately, there are a lot of people who support me and like what I do.”
This afternoon, Noa-Lynn van Leuven will appear on the Ally Pally stage for the first time.
