Three-time World Darts Championship finalist Deta Hedman refused to play against 27-year-old trans woman Noa-Lyn van Leeuwen, UNN reports with reference to Bild.
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At the WDF tournament in Denmark, van Leeuwen and Hedman were scheduled to meet in the quarterfinals. However, Hedman boycotted the match, and after being eliminated from the tournament, she attacked van Leeuwen.
"I will not play against a man in a women's tournament," she said.
The 64-year-old athlete is strongly opposed to transgender people being allowed to play in women's competitions. By refusing to participate in the tournament, she wanted to clarify her position once again.
"I've always said I'd retire from the sport when the fun of it is gone. With the current problems in women's darts, that moment is getting closer and closer," Hedman wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
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Noa-Lynn van Leeuwen has been calling herself a woman since 2014: she underwent surgery and hormone therapy, and has been participating in women's tournaments ever since. After her victory at the PDC Women's Tournament in Hildesheim in March, the Dutchwoman was criticized. Subsequently, some of her national teammates quit the team.