A British female darts star has forfeited her chance to the win the Denmark Open after refusing to face a transgender player, calling for the sport to ban male athletes. The Mail has the story.
Deta Hardman, 64, who has been a vocal critic of rules allowing transgender women to compete in women’s tournaments, pulled out of the quarter-final match against Noa-Lynn van Leuven.
Hedman, is one of the most well known figures in the women’s darts scene, and in the past has called on the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and the World Darts Federation (WDF) to exclude transgender athletes from women’s tournaments.
“I’m not playing against a man in a women’s event,” bluntly told German newspaper Bild.
Supporters of Hedman were quick to offer the darts star compensation for her decision to boycott the tournament, offering to make up any prize money she may have lost.
Yet Denmark Darts paid her out in full for the event. It was reported that Hedman had initially told organisers she was ill but hitting back at the claim, she wrote on X: “No fake illness, I said I wouldn’t play a man in a ladies event.”
The sportswoman went onto write to Save Women’s Sport – an international campaign calling for “fairness in women’s sport” that says “biological sex matters”.
Hedman said to the group: “This subject causing much angst in the sport I love. People can be whoever they want in life but I don’t think biological born men should compete in women’s sport.”
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