Tennis icon Martina Navratilova interferes in darts dispute: ''No male bodies in women's sports''
PDCMonday, 25 March 2024 at 20:26
Martina Navratilova has criticized transgender darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven after title success in the PDC Women's Series last weekend. Her participation once again caused a stir on social media.
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Last week, Van Leuven already appeared in the spotlight after she managed to win a Challenge Tour tournament. In doing so, she defeated Stefan Bellmont, Alexander Merkx, Darryl Pilgrim, John Henderson, Cam Crabtree and Tytus Kanik.
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On Saturday, however, Van Leuven also achieved success at the Women's Series. After that, however, it was mostly about a statement brought out by compatriot Anca Zijlstra. She no longer made herself available for the Dutch women's team because Van Leuven is also in it. Later, Aileen de Graaf also announced she no longer wants to play for the Netherlands for the same reason.
Via the social medium X, eighteen-time Grand Slam winner Martina Navratilova, who has frequently spoken out about the participation of transgender people in women's sports. According to Navratilova, it should not be possible for ''male bodies'' to participate in women's sports. ''No male bodies in women's sports please, not even in darts,'' she wrote.
Then she also responded briefly to the news that two Dutch players have left the Dutch women's team. "Again, women get the short end of the stick either way. And it stinks," Navratilova posted.
The Dutch Darts Association came out with a statement Monday after all the fuss. It stated that everyone should be able to feel at home in the darts world. ''We find it important that one hundred percent of people feel welcome at the NDB in a socially safe, healthy and inclusive sports environment. In that, it does not matter what your origin, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation, race or religion is."
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Samuel GillChief Content Officer
Samuel Gill is the Chief Content Officer (CCO) of DartsNews.com, a role he has held since 2020. He is responsible for editorial governance across the platform, including setting content standards, overseeing accuracy and consistency, and guiding long-term editorial strategy across professional darts coverage. Since joining, he has contributed more than 10,000 articles and editorial pieces, playing a central role in the development and daily operation of the site.
Based in Leicester, Samuel has extensive experience in darts media and has been closely involved in coverage of the professional darts circuit for several years. Within the UK darts community, he is a recognised figure known for his consistent editorial output and ongoing reporting on major tournaments and developments across the PDC calendar.
In his current role, Samuel works closely with editors and writers to ensure content meets clear journalistic standards, with a focus on source verification, editorial consistency, and timely updates when new, confirmed information becomes available.
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- Not much of a tournament really,is it? Now they've all pulled out,it's open for everyone. I'm sure if you bought tickets,you'd be disappointed. Doesn't that seem to bother the withdrawals? Not at all!!rick6710-09-2026
- Need to see her take part in the womens tour. She'll break the inernet.medinabello08-09-2026
- If he can be bothered? He won't play darts in Germany yet he'll go over and get an award!??rick6702-09-2026
- Why is this the main story? He chose not to compete in loads of tournaments,yes he's number 1 in the world,but he does have to turn up at tournaments! Play the next world championship in Dortmund and see if he turns up!!rick6727-08-2026
- This is exactly what I mean,littler survives the 1st round,I think you'll find a lot of other players did. Can you just report on the real sport,and not just 1 person. I like Luke,but this is getting boring now,as Kevin painter once said to Taylor!! The sport is about every player,not 1 who everyone seems to have put the sport on the map.,which he hasn't,he's just got in when the money is massive. Great as he is,it seems like what's the point in anyone trying,he's going to win everything,unless it's in Germany or Australia!!!rick6726-08-2026
- I mean look, Littler's picture is first,wattimena is second and he won! Level it up. I know littler is fantastic,but the sport was here before him,and will be when he's retired. Any player in the top 64/128 can beat each other,it's not big news. Poor Jermaine,wins it,and not even the headline!!rick6726-08-2026
- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
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- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
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