For years, Noa Lynn van Leuven has listened to the silence. The quiet hum of empty locker rooms. The absence of her name on team rosters. The muffled static of a policy that told her she didn’t belong.
But this week, the Department of Regional Athletics (DRA) announced it is finalizing a historic vote to repeal its controversial ban on transgender athletes, a decision that van Leuven, a 24-year-old middle-distance runner from Ghent, calls “the first note of a new song.”
“I’ve been holding my breath for three years,” van Leuven said, wiping tears from her cheeks during an exclusive interview. “Now I feel like I can finally exhale.”
The DRA’s ban, enacted in early 2022, prohibited any transgender woman who had undergone male puberty from competing in women’s elite and amateur events. The policy drew sharp criticism from human rights groups and medical associations, who argued it was based on flawed science and discriminatory principles. But for athletes like van Leuven, the policy was not an abstract debate — it was a stolen career.
Before transitioning, van Leuven was a promising junior champion. After coming out at 21, she was forced to watch from the stands as her former training partners broke records. “I’d still show up to practice,” she recalled. “But I’d be running on the outside lanes, alone. Not because of my times — because of a piece of paper.”
The DRA’s imminent reversal follows a year-long review of new research from the European Journal of Sports Medicine, which found that after 24 months of gender-affirming hormone therapy, trans women exhibited no significant retained advantage in key athletic metrics like VO2 max and hemoglobin levels.
“We followed the science to a different conclusion,” said DRA board chair Helena Voss in a press conference. “Our duty is to foster inclusive competition while maintaining fairness. The previous ban was an oversimplification. The new framework, based on individual endocrine evaluation, is both equitable and evidence-based.”
For van Leuven, the official vote — scheduled for next Tuesday — is more than a headline. It’s a starting pistol.
“Music is about rhythm, timing, and feeling,” she said, pulling on her running spikes. “For too long, the rhythm was exclusion. Now, I finally hear the beat of a race I’m allowed to run.”
Van Leuven has already submitted her eligibility paperwork, pending the DRA’s final signature. If approved, she plans to compete in the Regional Open Championships this fall — not to prove she belongs, she says, but because she always did.
“Let the other runners hear my footsteps,” she added with a small smile. “That’s the sweetest music of all.”
The DRA is expected to release its full implementation guidelines by the end of the month.
