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Olav Zipser, born in Simmern, Germany, began his skydiving career in 1986 and quickly revolutionized the sport by introducing non-traditional forms of body flight - in other words departing the known world of flying on your belly to flying on multiple axes, namely on your head. His innovative approach led to the development of FreeFly, a discipline that has transformed skydiving techniques and competitions worldwide.

Since his first jump nearly 40 years ago, Olav founded multiple free fly schools around the world to recruit others to “Freefly Your Mind.” Olav has trained 14 world champion skydivers, and he was instrumental in bringing free fly to the FAI making it an official category in competition. His achievements also include jumping from the stratosphere in 1995 from 47,000 feet, winning an Emmy Award for his performance in the X-Games, creating the Space Games, inventing the space ball, and has successfully survived more than 25,000 skydives in his career. 

In October of 2024, Olav was inducted into the International Skydiving Hall of Fame where he was presented by a free fly prodigy in his own right, Rook Nelson. 

Very impressive accomplishments considering that Olav was on the path to becoming a dentist until he made a skydive in Texel, in the Netherlands in the mid-80s where he learned to, as he describes, swim in the ocean of air.

MEDIA

VIDEO: Olav Zipser FreeFly Cross Wind
VIDEO: Freefly Astronaut Project
VIDEO: The Best of Crosswind

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