GP:
A brave female darts player decided to forfeit her chance at glory and money in the name of fair play in sports.
As Reduxx reported, British darts star Deta Hedman refused to play against the Netherlands’s Noa-Lynn Van Leuven during Saturday’s Denmark Open quarter-final in Esbjerg. As a result, Van Leuven received a free pass to the semi-finals.
“I’m not playing against a man in a women’s event,” Hedman told German newspaper Bild.
As the Daily Mail notes, the 64-year-old Hedman is one of the most prominent figures in the women’s darts scene. She is a three-time World Darts Federation (WDF) World Champion runner-up and has been a presence in women’s darts since the 1980s.
Reduxx notes Hedman also has been outspoken on the issue of keeping sports single-sex for several years. In 2023, Hedman named Van Leuven in a statement she wrote on the issue for Darts World.
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On one hand, if there is a women’s tournament, it should be played by women. On the other hand, darts does not strike me as a physical game, so there does not appear to be much of an advantage to anyone by having men, women and/or transgenders participating against each other in the same tournament. But that being said, if the tournament is advertised as a womens’ or mens’ tournament, the participants should be of that gender – if open to all genders, it should be an “open.”
This not an endeavor in which men have a physical advantage.
If women want their own leagues, etc., then we should have every right to keep them out of men’s organizations, like refereeing and so forth.
As Wyatt noted, having an open competition is fine. In fact, for some athletic sports events there have been ‘open’ categories in which any sex (or ‘gender identity lol’) is allowed. And nobody enters those, because the men just want to win at something they aren’t very good at. Also, nobody would watch those anyway because they don’t have the best competitors.
I looked at the article and I thought it was a pic of Wierd Al.
There is a line, do not allow men/boys to cross it no matter what.
Women/girls’ sport are exclusively for women or girls. End of story.
There need to 4 Categories for every athletic competition: Men (XY, no PEDs), Women (XX, no PEDs), Open (no PEDS), and Modified (take whatever drugs you want). We don’t have implants for athletic performance gains yet.
Wyatt,
I have the greatest respect for you, but I don’t think we (humans) should adopt the misleading, confusing, and irrational terminology of the Satanists, Nihilistic Totalitarians, and other assorted misfits, morons, and evil-doers.
“Gender” is a grammatical term – humans are one of two (2) sexes – male or female.
There are, of course, freaks of nature, such as hermaphrodites and eunuchs but those are devoid of sex (I think I read somewhere that hermaphrodites, like eunuchs, are sterile).
Sorry to preach.
Your point is well-taken.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
Sounds like there was a bigger prick than the one on the end of the dart.
@Tim: sorry, I’m guess I’m old fashioned. Some forms and applications back in the day used “gender” instead of “sex,” and the choices were male or female so I sometimes use gender in the place of sex. But I still believe there are only two genders – men and women.
As a biological male, I too refuse to play against a man in a woman’s event.
She’s is the Champion in my eyes.
If the league or tournament is deemed a womens event then men should not be allowed. Period. I appreciate this lady drawing a line.