​Image source, Getty Images. 9 April 2026. The Darts Regulation Authority has banned transgender women from competing in its women’s events with immediate effect.. The DRA, which governs the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), said “only biological females should be eligible to compete in women’s tournaments regulated by DRA Rules”.. It comes after the DRA completed a review of its Trans and Gender Diverse Policy, which began in 2025.. Noa-Lynn van Leuven, who in 2024 became the first transgender woman to compete in the PDC World Championship, said the decision had “effectively retired her”.. She remains eligible to play in open tournaments for men and women.. “I just got an email and apparently I just got retired, not by choice but because I am no longer allowed to compete,” Van Leuven said in a video posted on Instagram.. “The DRA just decided that trans women are no longer allowed in women’s events which basically means I am out.. “Everyday it is getting harder for trans people to exist, to compete. If you think this stops with me, it doesn’t. We just want to be.”. Sex-based rights charity Sex Matters said “men’s physical advantages in darts may be small but they all add up”.. “Darts is a male-dominated world, played in pubs and clubs, and the top darts players are all men. That’s why women need their own tournaments.. “The Darts Regulation Authority followed the lead of the old, unfair IOC [International Olympic Committee] policy, so it’s great to see this rapid return to fairness for women players.”. The DRA said it “seeks to be inclusive” and it encouraged “all players – irrespective of their biological sex, legal sex, and/or gender identity” to continue competing in open tournaments.. It said its decision was based on legal advice and it considered last year’s UK Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.. The DRA also commissioned a report by Dr Emma Hilton – an academic developmental biologist who has published several papers on sex and categories in sport.. Dr Hilton is on the board of trustees for Sex Matters.. Her report concluded “that multiple, small-magnitude sex differences accumulate to generate male advantage over females in darts”.. Last year, the World Darts Federation (WDF) banned transgender women from competing in its women’s tournaments.. Last month, the president of the IOC, Kirsty Coventry, announced a blanket ban on transgender women, as well as athletes with differences in sex development (DSD), from Olympic women’s sport, to take effect at the Games from 2028.. Related topics. Darts