In 2024, we celebrate the progress of women’s sports which has come as the product of female athletes resisting dominant structures of inequality. Despite progress, female athletes still navigate the complexities of their identity within the sporting world each day, confronting obstacles such as the pressure to conform to existing gender stereotypes. This study focuses specifically on the experiences of gender for Division III female, gender-queer and male athletes. The study centers diverse perspectives of athletes from gender segregated and co-ed teams, focusing on how these athletes negotiate their gender identities with societal expectations within the social culture of these two environments. Female and gender-queer athletes on both team environments displayed negotiating gender through self-talk practices. Female and gender-queer athletes on co-ed team environments reported a heighted level of gender awareness due to direct interactions with the male gender, including sexism, male-centric horseplay, validation processes and competition dynamics.