At the end of the second set of the World Darts Championship, one of the world’s biggest indoor sports, Luke Littler calmly walked off the stage, gave his family a wry, knowing smile and rubbed his hands together. It was as if he had foresight of the beating he was about to receive.
The man, no, the boy who was watched by 3,000 people at London’s Alexandra Palace, and millions more watching at home, in pubs across the UK and around the world, not only distinguished himself with cool ease , or do it with flamboyant style but with disdainful relish.
The darts final has been more glamorous – Phil Taylor, the game’s all-time great, hit three 7-0 victories in his heyday – but not like this. Never liked this.
Luke Littler is 17 years old. Drinking inside.
Yet, armed with bravado and a stage persona, he’s ready to lead the sport down a path it’s never taken before, and that’s exactly what he’s already doing.
Like Pele and Serena Williams, Littler won one of the biggest awards in sport as a teenager (Ben Stanthal/AFP via Getty Images)
Littler has helped push darts further into the mainstream in the UK, with subscription service Sky Sports seeing viewership rise by almost 200% at some events in 2024, following last year’s final – the most watched event – which hit 480 The record number for a non-rugby event in the broadcaster’s history came after 10,000), when Littler, then 16, lost to Luke Humphreys.
Now, by becoming a world champion, he has earned his right to enter the pantheon of young sports legends. Of course, Pele played well as a 17-year-old, but could he throw three No. 20 balls to the red, green and black boards from nearly two and a half meters away?
Serena Williams won the US Open at 17, Ian Thorpe won Olympic swimming gold at the same age, Sachin Tendulkar made his India debut at 16, Snow Magician Ronnie O’Sullivan was just 17 when he won the British Championship. What makes Littler stand out in his particular field is that he became the world’s greatest current athlete in the entire sport before he even reached adulthood.
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Why is he so good? Is it a natural talent? Well, he’s been playing darts since his dad bought him a magnetic dart board from the pound shop when he was 18 months old. He’s not old enough to vote yet, but he’s been practicing for this moment almost his entire short life.
It’s not all youthful energy and freshness. Despite leading 4-2, Littler was left mentally scarred by last year’s final defeat (he reviewed the game hours before Friday’s game to review what went wrong), but his pursuit of victory in north London , rushing into the finals without mercy and ruthlessness.
The youngster later said he was nervous after taking an early lead, but his actions in beating one of the best players in the world suggested the exact opposite.
He pounded the treble bed as relentlessly as a jackhammer the size of a dart, gouging perfect little holes in the helpless wood and carving his grand journey.
Little was waving his hands like a sports artist, smiling and waving to the crowd, talking to them and himself throughout, in complete control of his own destiny.
Littler breaks Van Gerwen’s record to become the youngest ever darts world champion (James Fearn/Getty Images)
He doesn’t just want to win, he tries to create darts from the gods during the game. He always set his score at 170, the maximum winning score in darts, which happened too often to be intentional. Darts players usually look distressed when they miss a nine-dart (the perfect dart to win a match in as few throws as possible), but Littler just shrugged nonchalantly when he missed the seventh dart, as if he knew he Will get another chance.
Van Gerwen, a 157-time PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) champion, could do nothing but frown like Dick Dastardly in a lime green shirt.
The 24-year-old Dutchman was once the youngest world champion.
Van Gerwen rallied like a champion and held on to Littler’s flag for the next six sets, but it was never enough in front of a drunken and hurling wildly partisan crowd. He may appear to be a composite Bond villain, part Blofeld with his shiny bald head and part Jaws with a grille on his chops, but he can only play in high notes and tons of waves Bad guys for so long.
Little is great. Whenever Van Gerwen surfaced for air, the teenager would push him back underwater with one hand and hit a double ten with the other.
“Wow… wow,” Littler said to himself, having just hit a double 16 to win 7-3, confirming the title and becoming £500,000 richer ($621,056 at current exchange rates). When interviewed immediately after the game, he muttered “I can’t believe it” three times.
“When we were 2-0 up, I started to get nervous, but I said to myself, ‘Relax’.
“The first game against Ryan Mikel, that’s the really important game.”
Littler cried on stage after defeating Mikel in the second round before Christmas. He broke down, unable to finish the interview, and left the stage to hug his mom.
Earlier that day, on the train journey to London, he couldn’t wait for the game to start, but when he threw his first dart, he essentially bottled it, in his own words.
“I’ve never felt like this,” he said after he calmed down. “It’s a weird feeling… It’s the biggest stage out there. It’s probably the toughest game I’ve ever played.
To prove his otherworldly nature, at the end of that “toughest” match, he somehow produced the greatest set of darts in the history of the World Championship, averaging over 140, but yes, he It started like a glorious pub with its players holding themselves to incredibly high standards.
“I thought to myself; ‘What are you doing? Just relax,'” Littler said.
Littler withdraws from the final against Michael van Gerwen at Alexandra Palace (James Fearn/Getty Images)
It’s no surprise that at just 17 years old, there’s a lot of pressure on his young shoulders to be the favorite to win the title, he’s an ordinary kid from Runcorn, a town near Liverpool in northwest England, who eats kebabs and loves football.
After that, he played imperiously throughout almost the entire match, reflecting his rise from 164th to fourth in the world rankings last year.
Despite unimaginable growth in money, fame, popularity and exposure, with 1.5 million followers on Instagram, endless TV appearances and hanging out with Max Verstappen or his heroes at Manchester United, he still Staying focused, winning 10 PDC titles, a Premiership, a Grand Slam and a World Series final, plus hitting four perfect nine-darts along the way, earning over £1 million ($1.2 million) in prize money.
He is the most searched athlete of the year on Google and runner-up for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Sky Sports Darts presenter Emma Paton said: “Littler appeals to people because he is so relatable.” Competitor earlier in the game. “He’s taken the sport to a different place… Darts has never had this kind of exposure before. It’s not even because of what he’s done in the sport (which is ridiculous by the way), but it’s Because of his impact on the sport.
“Compared to a lot of other players, darts players are very honest and basically just be themselves, and Luke is no different. At the end of the day, he’s just a kid.
“People ask me, ‘What’s it like talking to Luke Littler? He doesn’t seem to have anything to say. I think, ‘He’s just very calm, he doesn’t really care, he’s just a 17-year-old kid’.
This is how the darts-obsessed Littler plays, like a kid having fun on stage, sketching out his personal darts dream list.
He has an uncanny ability to completely remove himself from huge events, chatting with the crowd, ignoring his opponents and just playing his own game, the old sports cliché.
He enjoys showcasing skills he has honed over years of practice, stretching what we previously thought was possible and limited in the sport. He tries irregular shots, he hits a double-double or a double bullseye. He basically put the practice board on the world stage.
Then, when he needs it, steely determination flashes in his eyes, followed by a relentless 180. He can turn it on like no one in the sport.
Littler becomes emotional after winning the PDC World Championships (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
“I sometimes say that every 17 years a star is born,” van Gerwen said modestly. “He was one of them… Every time he had a chance, every time he had to hurt me, he did it.”
World champion, famous, millionaire. Besides coming of age, what exactly is next?
“I just wanted to add a little bit, maybe a little more,” Littler said. “If I want 16 (Taylor’s world championship record), then I’m sure I can achieve it.
“I’ve been doing this on a magnetic board in diapers since I was 18 months old.
“When I tell my friends I’m going to play darts, they’re like, ‘Darts?!’ “Yeah, darts, don’t you see?” “
Now they all see it, thanks to a humble 17-year-old who can shoot an arrow like few before.
(Top photo: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
