Clear defeat
Trans woman fails in round one at Darts World Cup
Updated 12/18/2024 – 9:12 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
This game was eagerly awaited: Noa-Lynn van Leuven is the first trans woman to compete at the Darts World Cup. At the end of the day there are no women left in the tournament in London.
Noa-Lynn van Leuven lost her historic debut game at the World Darts Championship in London. The 28-year-old Dutchwoman lost 3-1 to her compatriot Kevin Doets in the first round. Van Leuven, who was the first trans woman to compete at the World Cup, started strong and won the first set straight away. When she had the chance for a break in the second set, she threw numerous throws past the doubles.
A few hours later, Fallon Sherrock, the second and last remaining woman, was also thrown out of the tournament. The Queen of the Palace, as Sherrock has been called since her two victories in December 2019, narrowly lost 3-2 to her English compatriot Ryan Meikle. Beau Greaves, currently the best woman in the world, decided not to start.
Van Leuven conqueror Doets will face former world champion Michael Smith from England on Thursday evening (11 p.m./Sport1 and DAZN). Doets and Smith met last year. Back then, Doets narrowly missed out on a sensation at 2:3.
For van Leuven, the World Cup premiere is already over. In 2022 she completed hormone therapy. According to the regulations of the world association PDC, their start is permitted. Trans people or transgender people are people who do not feel like they belong to the gender they were assigned at birth.
There had been numerous hostilities against van Leuven in the past few months. In addition to hate comments on social media, rivals also commented that they were bothered by van Leuven’s qualification via the Women’s Series. She received a warm welcome at Alexandra Palace, known by the nickname Ally Pally, on Tuesday afternoon.