[2] In 1973, at the age of eight she began training and competing as part of Starlit Aquatic Club in Fairfax, Virginia and continued through the early 1980's.

She grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, close to Fairfax's Starlit Aquatic where her primary coach was Holger Dietz.

Starlit featured a weight room and both a 25-yard and 50-meter pool, but folded in the 1980's due to financial issues that resulted in maintenance problems with the facilities.

[1][12] After completing her time at Stanford, she married Paul Von Der Lipp, moved to Colorado, and began a career in marketing.

[14] She earned a gold medal at the 84 Olympics by swimming for the winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the women's 4×100-meter medley relay.

The Dutch team, a close rival, was eliminated in a preliminary round due to a disqualification when a member started before their teammate had fully finished their leg and touched the wall.

The U.S. team led from the first leg, winning in a combined time of 4:08.34, to finish ahead of second-place West Germany by 3.5 seconds, a significant margin.

[8] In 1985, von der Lippe had surgery on both knees, due to inflamed ligaments largely from the rigors of breaststroke training and competition, but was able to make the U.S. World Championship team in 1986, after a year of recovery.

[2] At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Rapp competed in the B Final of the women's 200-meter breaststroke, finishing thirteenth overall with a time of 2:32.90.

[21] Returning to the workforce, in 2018 Von der Lippe worked with SwimLabs in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she taught young swimmers to swim, and provided competitive lessons.

[4] As of 2014[update], von der Lippe holds 61 individual U.S. Masters Swimming pool records, across the 35–39, 40–44 and 45–49 age groups.