As a young woman, Zander belonged to the Handicapped Sports League of Berlin, and worked in a factory. She represented West Germany at the 1958 and 1959 Stoke Mandeville Games. She won eight medals at the 1960 Summer Paralympic Games in Rome. As Christa Welger, she represented the United States as a swimmer and field athlete at the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1962, and at 1964 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, where she won a gold medal and three silver medals. She also competed at the National Wheelchair Games in 1963. She was inducted into the Adaptive Sports USA Hall of Fame in 1986.