# Noa-Lynn van Leuven

Noa-Lynn van Leuven (born 27 September 1996) is a Dutch darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. She was the first openly transgender person to compete in a televised darts tournament and the first to play at the PDC World Darts Championship, making her debut at the 2025 event. van Leuven won a title on the PDC Challenge Tour and four titles on the Women's Series in 2024. She formerly competed in World Darts Federation (WDF) events, where she was a two-time Dutch Open semi-finalist.

## Early life

Van Leuven began considering transitioning around the age of 16,. She told the PA news agency that she had suffered depression beforehand, and that she "wouldn't be here" if not for her transition. Van Leuven had played darts for nine years before her transition, though she stopped for several years. She works as a chef de partie.

## Career
### 2022

Having passed stringent transitioning tests to play in women's darts, van Leuven made her debut at the 2022 PDC Women's Series.
Van Leuven reached the quarter-finals of both events 13 and 14 of the Women's Series, losing to Beau Greaves 4–2 and Laura Turner 4–3 respectively.

### 2023

At the 2023 Dutch Open, van Leuven entered the event as the 15th seed and reached the semi-finals. In the last 64 she whitewashed Jacqueline Geel 3–0 then defeated Evelien van Tol 4–1 in the last 32 before winning against Deta Hedman and Lorraine Hyde 4–3 in deciding legs. Van Leuven was whitewashed by eventual winner Aileen de Graaf 4–0 in the semi-finals.
Van Leuven played at the 2023 PDC Women's Series. She qualified for the 2023 Women's World Matchplay by finishing 8th in the Women's Matchplay Race. She did this by reaching the final of event twelve of the Women's series, where she was whitewashed 5–0 by Beau Greaves, to leapfrog 2022 Women's World Matchplay semi-finalist Lorraine Winstanley.
She played against Beau Greaves in the first round of the Women's World Matchplay, becoming the first trans woman to play in a televised PDC tournament. She was whitewashed 4–0 by Greaves.

### 2024

Van Leuven entered the 2024 Dutch Open as the 4th seed and reached the semi-finals again. She whitewashed Jaleesa Zegel 3–0, then defeated Kelly Streef, Tori Kewish and Kirsty Hutchinson each 4–1. Van Leuven lost in the semi-finals to the eventual winner, Women's number one Beau Greaves.
Van Leuven played at the 2024 PDC Challenge Tour series, winning on her debut at event six.
Van Leuven played at the 2024 PDC Women's Series. She reached the quarter-finals at the first event, losing there to reigning WDF Women's World Champion Beau Greaves 5–2. At the second event, van Leuven won a Women's series tournament for the first time. She whitewashed Roos Van der Velde, Anca Zijlstra and Hannah Meek each 4–0 in legs. Van Leuven then defeated Marie Fitton 4–2 in the last 16. Van Leuven achieved 5–3 victories over Beau Greaves and Fallon Sherrock in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively before she triumphed over Katie Sheldon 5–2 in the final. This victory meant van Leuven had won both a women's tournament and a mixed gender tournament in the same week.
At event three of the Women's Series, van Leuven reached the quarter-finals again, winning against Eve Watson 4–3, whitewashing Snezana Veljkovic 4–0, defeating Chris Savvery 4–1 and beating Steph Clarke 4–2 before losing 5–4 to Lorraine Hyde.
At event four van Leuven defeated Casey Gallagher 4–1 and then whitewashed Angela Kirkwood and Carly Townsend 4–0 before losing 4–1 to Fallon Sherrock.
Van Leuven won Women's Series 21, defeating women's number one Beau Greaves 5–3 in the final, setting the record Women's Series average with 109.64. This result qualified her for the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, making her the first trans woman to appear at the Alexandra Palace. She also became the first trans woman to play at the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts having finished second on the 2024 PDC Women's Series Order of Merit. However, she was eliminated in the group stages.

### 2025

At the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, she lost 3–1 in sets to Kevin Doets.
After failing to gain a PDC Tour Card at the European Qualifying School, van Leuven took a break from the sport for mental health reasons. She returned for the 2025 PDC Women's Series.

## World Championship results
### PDC

* 2025: First round (lost to Kevin Doets 1–3)

## Performance timeline

| Tournament | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| PDC Ranked televised events |||||
| World Championship | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | 1R |
| Grand Slam of Darts | DNQ | DNQ | RR | |
| PDC Non-ranked televised events |||||
| Women's World Matchplay | DNQ | QF | QF | |
| WDF Ranked televised events |||||
| World Masters | 3R | NH | DNP | |
| Dutch Open | DNP | SF | SF | |
| Career statistics |||||
| Season-end ranking (PDC) | – | – | 130 | |
PDC Players Championships
| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 2024 | WIG DNP | WIG DNP | LEI DNP | LEI DNP | HIL DNP | HIL DNP | LEI DNP | LEI DNP | HIL 1R | HIL 1R | HIL 1R | HIL 1R | MIL DNP | MIL DNP | MIL DNP | MIL DNP | MIL DNP | MIL DNP | MIL DNP | WIG DNP | WIG DNP | MIL DNP | MIL DNP | WIG DNP | WIG DNP | WIG DNP | WIG DNP | WIG DNP | LEI DNP | LEI DNP |
* ↑ Not a Tour card holder
Performance Table Legend :
| W | Won the tournament | F | Finalist | SF | Semifinalist | QF | Quarterfinalist | #R RR L# | Lost in # round Round-robin Last # stage | DQ | Disqualified |
| DNQ | Did not qualify | DNP | Did not participate | WD | Withdrew | NH | Tournament not held | #R RR L# | Lost in # round Round-robin Last # stage | NYF | Not yet founded |