Olav Zipser (born 12 March 1966, Simmern, West Germany) is a Sports Emmy Award winning German professional skydiver.

[1][2] Zipser launched the freeflying movement of the early 1990s [3] when he began experimenting with non-traditional forms of body flight.

[4][5] Since then, he has been part of the worldwide sport of FreeFly and has helped it grow to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale competition level that it is at today.

[23][24] With the objective of researching, documenting, developing, teaching, training, and pushing the envelope of human flight capability, Zipser founded The First School of Modern SkyFlying in 1994.

He came up with the idea of using Space Balls as independent measuring devices for constant speed (155 mph) and direction (straight down).

This provided the testing ground for the research and development of freeflying, and opened up the possibility for a number of high-speed human flight air games and competitions.

They set the record for exiting an aircraft from the highest altitude without oxygen and achieved FreeFly speeds of 750kmh.

[32][33][34] Zipser received a Sports Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1995 for his performance and aerial cinematography of ESPN's inaugural X Games that summer.