Dutch darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven has revealed she questioned her future in the sport after the World Darts Federation banned transgender players from competing in the women's category. The 29-year-old, known as "The Duchess," admitted the new rule, which excludes transgender darters from the women's class, forced her to reconsider her career direction. Van Leuven told Oche, "I was like, what am I going to do with my career now? Am I just going to stick to the PDC or am I going to try other things?" The decision was voted on at last year's WDF Europe Cup in Slovakia, with van Leuven aware of it since July but uncertain about the timing and details.
Despite the uncertainty, van Leuven has now set her sights forward, competing in the open category, which she says has given her extra motivation. She stated, "It does motivate me to become a better player again. It is weird to not be able to play the women anymore in the WDF. But I can within the PDC. In the end, I am playing in the Dutch tournaments now in the open ranking and I quite enjoy myself in those." She also plans to focus more on open events within the WDF, adding, "I actually want to give it a shot now to play in the open and maybe some WDF tournaments." Internationally, she will represent the Netherlands at the upcoming 4 Nations Cup in two weeks.
Van Leuven's recent experiences include a 3-0 sets loss to two-time world champion Peter Wright in the first round of the PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace last December. Leading up to that tournament, she temporarily stepped away from darts due to mental health issues and faced heavy criticism and online abuse. However, she emphasized her love for the game, saying, "I just enjoy the game of darts too much. I keep coming back to it." So far, she has won one match on a PDC stage but aims to improve and target a Tour Card next year.
On the PDC Women's Series, van Leuven has made her mark with six tournament wins over the past two seasons. She acknowledged the dominance of Beau Greaves, who has an impressive 113-match unbeaten streak, joking, "She is quite annoying with how she is playing right now. I enjoy playing games against Beau; she always brings the best out of me in games." Van Leuven added that matches against Greaves can be close or one-sided, but she enjoys the rivalry and admires Greaves' performance on the ProTour.
