Racing, Recovery and Growth: Oli Zwar Opens Up

Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast

Downtime MTB

Sports, Leisure, Fitness, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Wilderness

4.9 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today on the Downtime Podcast, we’re sitting down with a Oli Zwar, a rider who’s lived the full spectrum of what downhill racing can throw at you. From the spark of motocross as a kid in Australia, to finding his feet on the World Cup stage, to battling injuries that almost took the joy out of riding altogether.

Oli Zwar’s journey is about grit, growth, and the people who kept him going. We get into how Zwar Brothers Racing came to be, the highs and lows of life on The Union, and that breakthrough 2022 season where everything finally clicked. Oli opens up on the pain that robbed him of grip strength, the surgery that changed everything, and the mental resilience he’s had to build along the way.

It’s an honest look at the realities behind race results, the importance of support networks, and rediscovering the simple joy of riding pain-free. There’s heaps to chat about, so sit back, hit play, and enjoy this episode with Oli Zwar.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube here.

You can follow Oli on Instagram @oliverzwar.

Podcast Stuff

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Photo – Kike Abelleira

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I've worked out that racing's not thinking in a way, like a meditative state.
0:03.2	You're trying to not think.
0:04.6	You're trying to just let your body react.
0:06.7	Why am I going to, why am I doing this?
0:08.3	So it's like, if I could just go get a normal job and make five times him out.
0:15.9	Hey everyone.
0:16.7	I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast, the podcast for the true fans of gravity
0:20.9	mountain biking, taking you deeper into the sport than anywhere else. This episode has no brand support,
0:26.2	so it's our lovely Patrons that have helped make this happen. Patreon is a big part of enabling
0:30.9	me to keep making this podcast and bringing new episodes like this one with Ollie. This podcast
0:35.4	is my full-time job. I love doing it and it is a huge amount of work.
0:39.4	This is how I make a living and how I provide for my family. So if you enjoy listening to
0:43.9	downtime, maybe consider supporting via Patreon. What I'm asking for is the price of a cup of coffee or a
0:49.5	pint. If you can't afford it, that's okay. Don't worry about it. But if you can afford it,
0:53.5	it does really help. Just head over to patreon.com for slash downtime podcast. That's Patreon, spelt P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Make sure you never miss an episode by following the show. Simply hit the follow button in your podcast app now or find dedicated buttons for all the major platforms at downtimepodcast.com for slash follow. You can also keep up to date with what's going on by following us on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok where we're at downtime podcast. And if you're hungry for more downtime, then you can join the newsletter at downtimepodcast.com for slash newsletter. That and all the links I've mentioned will be in the show notes for this episode on the website, podcast.com. All right, today on the show, we're sitting down with a rider who's lived
1:31.7	the full spectrum of what downhill racing can throw at you. From the spark of motocross as a kid in
1:36.5	Australia to finding his feet on the World Cup stage to battling injuries that almost took the joy out
1:41.2	of riding altogether. Ollie's War's journey is about grit, growth, and the people who kept him going.
1:47.2	We get into how Zwarbrothers Racing came to be, the highs and lows of life on the Union,
1:51.7	and that breakthrough 2020 season where everything finally clicked.
1:55.8	Ollie opens up on the pain that robbed him of grip strength, the surgery that changed everything,
1:59.9	and the mental resilience he's had to build along the way. It's an honest look at the realities behind race
	...

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