Noa-Lynn van Leuven reveals vile death threats anguish as transgender ace set for World Darts Championship debut
Noa-Lynn van Leuven has received death threats after her switch to men’s darts.
The Dutch native is preparing to make history as the first transgender player to compete at the Worlds. Van Leuven, who faces Kevin Doets this afternoon at the Paddy Power World Darts Championships, has had to take fierce stick and admitted it has gone over the line.
She said: “I got so many hate (messages) on my socials. People were recognising me on the street. Most of them were fine with it, they came up to me and were really supportive. But those messages, like death threats I was getting. On a daily basis. In that period, yes.”
Van Leuven’s reception will be fascinating as she was booed onto the stage at last month’s Grand Slam.
She said: “When I hit the good scores, they were cheering for me. But there were also a few people in the crowd that were booing me. I think you could hear it on television as well because I got some messages from people. They were like, the crowd were s**t. It didn’t really put me off my game. I could ignore that part.”
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