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As Noah-Lynn van Leuven approached the stage, red hair trailing and lipstick shimmering under the lights, it was hard to know what the reaction would be.
Throughout the long history of sports crowds, from the Colosseum in Rome to this cathedral of darts just outside the north ring, at their most basic level they can choose a binary response to their surroundings, cheering or whistling. How would The World Championship in the Alexandra Palace respond to his first transgender competitor?
A few minutes earlier there was a slight buzz as Van Leuven’s face was shown on the screen for the pre-match interview. There were several wolf whistles as she strode to her marker at the start of the runway. But if there were any murmurs of displeasure as she took the stage, they were drowned out first by her exit song, “Euphoria” by Loreen, and then by most giddy fans.
Maybe the people sitting around this collection of folding tables Alexandra Palace are a useful messenger for the great British public, reduced to its most cherished cultural tradition: the giant stag. It was 1:00 PM on a Tuesday and most of the room was already in half when a transgender athlete entered. And, for the most part, she was welcome.
There was indeed a palpable increase in support for Van Leuven’s cause as the match wore on, as she showed her skill to win the first set and later struggled to keep pace with an improving Kevin Doets.
Van Leuven’s average of 87.02 was only slightly below Doets, as she threw six 180s to his three. Perhaps the turning point was the moment in the second set when they shared an incredible flurry of missed doubles, something every amateur has experienced in the pub or on the board in their garden. Van Leuven was stuck on five, Doets on two, and needed 33 darts to win a comical game. As Van Leuven sighed, Doets bowed to the crowd and put an imaginary gun to his head.
Doets tied the score at 1-1, then surged ahead and stayed ahead to win the third set, and Van Leuven responded by leveling up in the fourth, throwing back-to-back 180s twice to bring the crowd to its feet. But not once could she close the 9 darts, and that proved costly as Doets finished the match, 3-1 win.
“I didn’t expect the crowd to be really scary,” Van Leuven said afterwards. “I hope they were with me, I guess they were with me. They just want to see good darts. And I guess Kevin and I both showed good darts.”
Perhaps what was most significant was that her appearance was barely noticeable. As choruses of “stand up if you like darts!” and “please don’t take me home!” echoed around the arena, there was a sense that no one really noticed, or was particularly bothered, who was playing.
This feeling was echoed by her opponent who embraced Van Leuven after his victory. “When I’m on stage, I don’t care who I’m playing,” Doets said after setting up a second-round clash with world No. 2 Michael Smith.
It wasn’t hard to find far harsher voices over the past year, from Van Leuven’s disgruntled opponents on the women’s tour to her Dutch teammates boycotting the national team in protest against her. Martina Navratilova’s tweet that Van Leuven’s victory in the women’s competition “stinks” brings with it a flood of online abuse.
What gives her the strength to keep playing? “It’s my love of darts,” she said. “It’s just a great game. I love the game and I just want to play it. And why does it matter who you are? Anyone who discriminates against me or is horrible to me says more about them than me.”
Her critics say there is a certain advantage that comes with male puberty, even though Luke Littler was beating adult pros at 10 and hit nine darts for 13. They argue there is a height and reach advantage, even if the woman she beats is here, Beau Greaves, is 6 feet tall; even if the greatest of all time, Phil Taylor, is 5 feet 7 inches.
There is nothing in the PDC rules that says she can’t compete, or has an unfair advantage on the women’s tour, or harms competition. The safety concerns often used against transgender athletes in boxing and rugby don’t apply here. The PDC stipulates that players must prove their testosterone levels are below 10 nmol/L for the year before competition, but otherwise it is open to transgender competitors at a time when the sport’s wave has closed its doors.
“The PDC has really been as supportive as anyone,” she said. “They stand behind their rules… I think it’s great to see what they’re doing. If you look at other sports, I guess it’s an easy way to ban trans people. If they have passed male puberty, they are not allowed to play anything anymore. In the UK it’s terrible.”
And look, some people just won’t be convinced. The comment sections of certain news organizations are almost certainly an absolute hotbed of hatred for this one, hatred that, if you dare get your nose close enough, carries a whiff of fear. But the real fear is feeling trapped in the wrong body. Van Leuven says she was bullied as a teenager and felt deeply depressed, and had to choose: “Stop it, or I can live the way I want to live.” she said The Guardian.
“I stopped playing darts for a few years because I was unhappy with myself,” she said, adding that it cost her crucial experience at the elite level.
So isn’t it better for a transgender woman to go about her business in this sport without physical affection? Maybe her performance here inspired someone to continue in sports, and maybe even in life. She threw her darts, lost, and waved goodbye to the crowd. By now, of course, most of them were deeply drunk. And they cheered.