Darts player withdraws from women’s tournament after being drawn against trans opponent

Darts player Deta Hedman has withdrawn from a PDC Women’s Series event after being drawn against transgender star Noa-Lynn van Leuven.

The 65-year-old was set to meet Van Leuven in a quarter-final tie on Saturday (18 October) but will now miss the knockout round entirely. This marks the second time Hedman has pulled out of a tournament facing Van Leuven, after also withdrawing from last year’s Denmark Open. At the time, she told German newspaper, Bild: “I’m not playing against a man in a woman’s body.”

Van Leuven, 29, who was assigned male at birth in the Netherlands, made history last year as the first Dutch woman to qualify for the World Darts Championship.

“She does what she does and she can play terrific darts. Let her play nice” – Michael van Gerwen defending Noa-Lynn van Leuven

While the WDF has banned transgender players from its events, the PDC still allows them to compete, and there’s no sign of that changing.

The Dutch star has received support from darts legend Michael van Gerwen, who called the criticism against her “heartbreaking”.

He said: “She does what she does and she can play terrific darts. Let her play nice. For me, there’s never been a discussion, but I don’t make the rules. The PDC has people who go over them. They can never make the right choice anyway. If they go left, people say they should go right and vice versa. Everyone has an opinion about it, but there is no point at all in continuing to argue.”

“Once again, it’s a loss for the trans community in sports. And that breaks my heart” – van Leuven on her WDF ban

Earlier this year, Van Leuven took a break from darts for “mental health” reasons after receiving death threats and abusive messages. She later reflected on her WDF ban on Instagram, writing: “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.

“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. My heart goes out to all the athletes impacted by this. We remain visible. We keep going.”