It's not the sport, it's the Olympics
The Olympic Games draw attention to sports and athletes, but they don't make them popular. The Olympic spectacle is often misinterpreted.
Most of the world will soon turn its attention to the Olympic Games and all the buzz, drama, and excitement surrounding the event. It's the spectacle of the Olympics that generates attention. Opening and closing ceremonies, crowds who want to be where the action is, almost non-stop media coverage, medal counts, political posturing, all of them, together, make the Olympics the center of the universe for a few weeks. The sport competition, the match-ups, the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" may be the raison d'etre of the Games but they are components to the larger event itself.
Obviously the Olympics would not be "the Games" without the games. To sport practitioners the popularity of the Games is evidence that sports are more popular than we realize. This is not true. The Olympics are popular because lots of non-sport fans are watching, fans of the Olympics, not of any particular sport.
Sport competition is the most interesting thing about the Olympics. However, it's wrong to think that the vast audience is watching because they are closet balance beamers or backyard shot putters. They're watching because it's the biggest show on Earth. Interest in the Olympic swimming meet, for example, has never translated into interest in swimming overall.
I watched an Olympic badminton final in 2012 not because I'm a badminton fan but because the final match had cultural significance where I was. I was working in Malaysia at the time and Lee Chong Wei, Malaysia's top player, was pitted against Lin Dan from China in the men's singles final. If Lee won it would have been Malaysia's first ever Olympic gold medal. It was a big deal. My knowledge of badminton was limited, so much so when Lee won the first game I thought he had won the match. I didn't realize an Olympic badminton match consisted of three games.
Lee did not win that match and Malaysia is still looking for its first gold, but my point is not about the outcome; I watched a sport I know almost nothing about and have no interest in because it was significant to the people I worked with, the media, and the country I lived in. I'm sure I wasn't the only non-fan glued to the screen that night.
Spectacle is important and the Olympics are nothing if not a spectacle. But three sports get more coverage than others: Swimming, athletics, and gymnastics drive television ratings. Swimming is center stage during the first week of the event, athletics takes over during the second week, and because of its event schedule, gymnastics spans the entire length of the Games.
Every four years post-Games interest in swimming spikes and launches an enrollment/growth spurt that clubs all over the world look forward to. I would imagine gymnastic clubs experience something similar. The club system is different in athletics, so I don't know if they see a jump in new members or not.
I don't recall ever looking deeply into why swimming got a lot of new members post-Olympics; we're quick to conclude that swimming is more popular than it really is. We forget big names like Phelps, Ledecky, and Lochte made the sport attractive and drew in youngsters who wanted to be like them.
We convinced ourselves more marketing or bigger events would drive enrollment every year and not just after the Olympics. But, as hard as it may be for diehards to hear, swimming is just not that interesting to watch and the sport is not as popular as the Olympic attention might suggest.
Swimming and athletics even created professional leagues. The International Swimming League (ISL) and the Diamond League for athletics attempted to popularize the sports and develop fans who were not also swimmers or track and field athletes.
The ISL gained no traction in its short run, appealing to a very small number of people who were already swimming fans (mostly swimmers and coaches). Right now the ISL is either on hiatus or may be shut down permanently. The Diamond League is still around but suffers from an apparently top secret scheduling strategy—try to find it on television.
So why are two less popular sports—swimming and athletics—the anchor sports for the Games?
First, they are both easy to understand. A spectator doesn't need to know the difference between the breaststroke and the butterfly to enjoy a swimming race. It's the same with athletics. Purists, of course, will understand the fine points of technique or strategy, but regardless of background knowledge everyone knows whoever touches the wall first or throws the farthest goes home with the gold.
The second reason is that both are individual sports. This makes it easy for the media to build drama around personalities or rivalries. People paid attention to the Games in 2016 to see how many medals Michael Phelps could win. Mark Spitz did something similar in 1972.
In athletics the women's 3000 meters in 1984 drew a lot of attention because it featured Mary Decker, the hometown favorite, and Zola Budd, the barefoot South African. Remember that one? Prior to the race the pair had a good chance of finishing first and second. But it ended in heartbreak when, after tangling feet with Budd, Decker fell and didn't finish. Budd finished in 7th place. You can watch the relevant part of the race here:
Gymnastics is a bit different, and here I'm talking mostly about women's gymnastics. The main attraction of the sport is making something that we all know is hard, look easy. In 1972 Olga Korbut, a 17-year-old Soviet gymnast, captured the imagination of people everywhere with her daring gold medal performances, especially on the uneven bars. She was labeled a 'pixie' due to her small stature and shy smile. In 1976 age had caught up to her—she was 21 by then—and world attention shifted to Nadia Comaneci, a 15-year-old Romanian who not only won gold but also turned in the first perfect score of 10 in an Olympic event. The pixie moniker for women gymnasts continued in 1984 when 16-year-old Mary Lou Retton turned in two gold medal performances.
Women gymnasts have gotten older since the pixie days, Simone Biles, for example, will be 27 in Paris. But interest is still high and the skills demonstrated are even more breathtaking. Many who watch the Paris gymnastics may not care if they ever see another meet but they will be excited to watch during the Games. It's not the sport that's drawing interest, it's the personalities and the drama of the Games.
The final reason swimming, gymnastics, and athletics are premier Olympic sports is because an Olympic gold medal represents the highest achievement possible in these sports. In other Olympic sports like basketball, cycling, or soccer there are other fixtures that may hold the same prestige as an Olympic gold.
In cycling, for example, the grand tours—Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España—take place every year. In 2024 the Vuelta, the latest of the tours, starts during the Games. Many professional riders never get the opportunity to compete in the Olympic road race, not because they don't want to, it's just not practical.
When the Olympics open the drama will be as thick as raspberry coulis. The city of Paris, the media hype, and everything else that goes into a large multi-sport event will draw the world's attention for a few weeks. For some, the Games will be a chance to perform at the edge of their ability and compete for the highest honor their sport offers. This is why people watch, this is why the Olympics are popular.