At the end of the second set of the World Darts Championship final, the biggest match in one of the biggest indoor sports in the world, Luke Littler calmly walked off the stage, flashed a knowing, wry smile at his family and rubbed his hands together as if he had foresight of the blow he was about to deliver. .
The man, no, the boy who was crammed into Alexandra Palace in London by 3,000 people to watch the production of history, with millions more watching at home and in pubs across the UK and the world, was not just doing it with dispassionate ease, or with dazzling style. , but with disdainful pleasure.
Darts finals have never been won more gloriously – Phil Taylor, the sport’s greatest ever player, managed three 7-0 victories in his prime – but not like this. Never like this.
Luke Littler is 17 years old. He has the facial hair that men many years his senior yearn to grow, and in a sport with its history rooted in bars, Littler has yet to drink alcohol in one.
However, he does carry the courage and theatrical personality of someone who is willing to take the sport on roads it has never been before, which is exactly what he is doing.
Like Pele and Serena Williams, Littler won one of sport’s biggest trophies while still a teenager (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
Littler has already helped push darts towards the mainstream in the UK, with viewing figures on Sky Sports, a subscription service, rising by almost 200 per cent for some tournaments in 2024, following a record 4.8 million viewers for last year’s final (most to watch). most non-football-related event in broadcaster history), in which 16-year-old Littler lost to Luke Humphries.
Now, after becoming a world champion, he has earned the right to enter the pantheon of youth sports legends. Sure, Pele was good at playing football at 17, but could he hit three hat-tricks on a red, green and black board from about two and a half metres?
Serena Williams won the US Open when she was 17, Ian Thorpe was the same age when he won Olympic gold in the pool, Sachin Tendulkar was 16 when he made his debut for India, and snooker wizard Ronnie O’Sullivan was Age 17 when he won the UK Championship. What sets Littler apart in his own field is that he became the world’s greatest current player in the entire sport before even becoming an adult.
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Why is it so good? Is it a natural talent? Well, he’s been playing darts since his dad bought him a magnetic dartboard from a pound shop when he was 18 months old. He’s not old enough to vote, but he’s been basically training for this moment for almost his entire short life.
It’s not just about youthful exuberance and freshness either. Littler was mentally scarred from losing last year’s final despite leading 4-2 (he watched it a few hours before Friday’s game to recap what went wrong), but he has been relentless and ruthless in his pursuit of victory here in north London. And he fell into a trap. He took a 4-0 lead against one of the greatest players to ever shoot an arrow, three-time champion Michael van Gerwen.
The youngster later said he felt nervous after taking an early lead, but his actions in obliterating one of the best players in the world suggest quite the opposite.
He hammered the triple bed relentlessly as if he were using a jackhammer the size of a dart, drilling perfectly small holes into the helpless panel as he carved his journey to greatness.
With the hands of an athletic artist, Littler smiled and waved to the crowd, talking to them and to himself the entire time, in complete control of his own destiny.
Littler surpassed Van Gerwen’s record as the youngest world darts champion in history (James Fearn/Getty Images)
Not only did he try to win, he tried to produce arrows from the gods while doing so. He kept letting himself go at 170, the biggest darts shot to win a leg, which happened so often that it wasn’t intentional. Darts players usually look pained when they miss a nine-dart (i.e. a perfect throw to win a leg in the fewest possible number of shots), but Littler shrugged nonchalantly when he missed a seven-dart as if he knew he’d get another chance.
Van Gerwen, winner of 157 PDC (Professional Darts Company) titles, could only grimace and grimace as Your treacherous dick In a lime green shirt.
The Dutchman was once the youngest world champion, aged 24. The symbolism of the heavy arrow stick being passed on to the next generation here was irresistible.
Van Gerwen rallied, as champions do, and clung to Littler’s tails as they exchanged the next six sets, but it was never enough in front of a delirious, booze-drunk and throwing partisan crowd. He may give off the look of a host of Bond villains, part Blofeld with his shiny bald head, part Jaws with a web across his chops, but he can only play the bad guy for so long in the face of a tidal wave of triples and tons.
Letlier was very good. Whenever Van Gerwen came up for air, the teenager pushed him back under the water with one hand and hit a double 10 with the other.
“Wow… wow,” Littler said to himself as he recovered, having just hit number 16 to win 7-3, confirming the title and becoming £500,000 richer ($621,056 at current conversion rates). He muttered “I can’t believe it” three times in his live post-match interview.
“When I was 2-0 up, I started to get nervous, but I told myself: ‘Just relax.’
“That first game against Ryan Mikel, that’s the game that was really important.”
Littler cried on stage after his second-round win over Mikel before Christmas. He collapsed and was unable to finish the interview, so he left the stage and went to hug his mother.
On the train ride to London earlier that day, he couldn’t wait for the match to start, but when he threw his first dart, he reworked his words, bottled them up.
“I’ve never felt anything like that,” he said later after he had composed himself. “It was a strange feeling… It’s the biggest stage there. It was probably the hardest match I’ve ever played.”
Proving his otherworldly nature, he somehow produced the largest collection of darts ever in World Series history at the end of that “hardest” match, averaging over 140, but yeah, it started out like a glorified pub. A player with incredibly high standards.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Just relax,’” Littler said.
Littler walking out for the final against Michael van Gerwen at Alexandra Palace (James Fearn/Getty Images)
No wonder, what with the enormous pressure on his young shoulders of being the favorite to lift the title when he is just 17 years old, an ordinary kid from Runcorn, a small town near Liverpool in north-west England, who eats kebab and loves football. .
And then, for almost the entire tournament, he was arrogant, reflecting the level that saw him rise from 164th to fourth in the world rankings last year.
Despite an unimaginable increase in money, fame, popularity and exposure, a massive 1.5 million Instagram followers, endless TV appearances and mix that with Max Verstappen or his heroes at Manchester United, he has remained focused, winning 10 PDC titles, the Premier League The English Premier League and the major championship. Slam Finals and World Series, as well as achieving four perfect nine-dart throws along the way and earning more than £1 million ($1.2 million) in prize money.
He was the most searched athlete of the year on Google and runner-up in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Emma Paton, presenter of Sky Sports Darts, said: “Littler has captured people’s attention because he is relatable.” The athlete Earlier in the tournament. “He took the sport to different places…darts had never had such exposure before. Not even because of what he did in the sport, which was ridiculous by the way, but because of the impact he had on it.”
“Compared to a lot of other athletes, darts players are refreshingly honest and basically just be themselves, and Luke is no different. He’s just a kid at the end of the day.
“People have asked me, ‘What’s it like when I talk to Luke Littler?’ He doesn’t seem like he has much to say.” “I tell him: ‘He’s very quiet, he doesn’t care much, he’s just a 17-year-old kid.'”
Darts-obsessed Littler plays just like that, like a kid having fun on stage, creating his own list of darts dreams.
He has an uncanny ability to completely detach himself from the enormity of the event, chat with the crowd, ignore his opponent, and just play his own game, the old sports cliche.
He enjoys showing off the skills he’s honed over years of practice, expanding on the possibilities and limits we previously thought the sport had. He tries erratic shots, hits double-doubles or double-figures. He’s basically taking the coaching board to the world stage.
Then, when he needs to, a gleam of steely determination emanates from his eyes and an unforgiving 80s beat ensues. He can run it like few athletes have done before.
Littler’s emotional reaction after winning the PDC World Championship (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
Van Gerwen said humbly: “Sometimes I say, every 17 years a star is born.” “He’s one of them… Every chance he got, every moment he had to hurt me, he did it.”
World champion, celebrity, millionaire. What on earth then, other than impending adulthood?
“I just want to add to it and maybe get more,” Littler said. “If I want No. 16 (Taylor’s record for world titles), I’m sure I can make it happen.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 18 months old on a magnetic board and wearing a nappy.
“When I tell my teammates I have a darts competition, they’ll be like, ‘Darts?!’ “Yes, arrows, haven’t you seen them?”
They’re all seeing it now, thanks to an unassuming 17-year-old who can throw darts like few have ever done before.
(Top image: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)