A trans-identifying man is facing backlash after he won professional darts titles against both men and women within the same week.
Darts star Noa-Lynn van Leuven, 27, a man who identifies as a woman, claimed victory 5-2 on Saturday against Ireland’s Katie Sheldon at the PDC Women’s Series event in Wigan, England.
The win came just days after van Leuven won a PDC Tour event on the Challenge Tour in Hildesheim, Germany. That event is open to both men and women.
The back-to-back wins prompted sharp criticism online.
“Again- women get the short end of the stick either way. And it stinks,” former Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova posted Sunday on X.
VICTORY FOR VAN LEUVEN! 🇳🇱
Noa-Lynn van Leuven clinches her maiden PDC Women’s Series title in Wigan! 🏆
Van Leuven overcomes some late double trouble to defeat Irish youngster Katie Sheldon in the Event Two final! pic.twitter.com/fEnlFzMQk3
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 23, 2024
Again- women get the short end of the stick either way. And it stinks. https://t.co/ehmlIikIQb
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) March 24, 2024
Two of van Leuven’s teammates also responded by quitting the Netherlands national women’s team.
Players Aileen de Graaf and Anca Zijlstra both released statements on their decisions.
“The moment when you feel ashamed to play for the Dutch team because a biological man plays on the women’s team, it’s time to go,” Zijlstra wrote. “I have tried to accept this, but I cannot condone this. I believe that sports should be an equal and fair playing field, handled and accepted as such in good conscience. After all, we have worked so hard to be relevant and competitive in this sport.”
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De Graaf said, ”At some point you have to make choices when something goes against your feelings. You have to do what feels right for you. Hence my decision to leave the Dutch team.”
De Graaf is currently ranked #2 in the world for women’s darts, according to the World Darts Federation.
The remaining four people on the Dutch women’s team, including van Leuven, will play in the upcoming Four Nations tournament against Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg on April 13 and 14.
Van Leuven responded to his teammates’ departure in brief comments.
“I don’t really feel the need to go further into it. This has been their choice and not mine. I think the only unfortunate thing about this issue is that a lot of people forget that I am also a human being,” van Leuven told Dutch outlet NOS.
Last year, van Leuven told The Guardian that he had started identifying as transgender at 16 or 17 at a time when he was deeply unhappy.
“I was getting more and more unhappy with myself, to a point that I didn’t want to live any more,” he told the outlet.
The controversy around van Leuven echoes controversies in the U.S. involving trans-identifying males in women’s sports.
This month, more than a dozen female college athletes filed a federal lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) over a trans-identifying male swimmer, Lia Thomas competing at the national championships in 2022.
