In the most market/libertarian sense you are right: athletes in highly visible sports do seem to make a lot more than those in not-visible sports. Market forces at work.
However, the salaries of the brass are made up off money made in television deals and other promotions. Network effects do have an impact on the size of the pie. So even the javelin matters if only for the size of the pie. It wouldn't be the Olympics with only soccer, it would be the World Cup.
I'm serious. I despise the olympics, but they are the only reason that a lot of these sports have any visibility at all.
I'm a big fan of an obscure sport: wrestling. I have attended events, bought t-shirts and otherwise supported US wrestlers directly or indirectly.
And yet, the Olympics is still the biggest stage for these guys because having that gold is a level of prestige that can't be earned anywhere else. It's an all or nothing gambit for the athletes, but the Olympics is the only group offering up even that much.
If people really want the javelin guy and the trampoline dude to make a living, they should attend/watch events other than the olympics.
tl;dnr -- There is virtually no value in a swimming event. There is a large value in an olympic swimming event. The athletes are the same in both. The venue brings the value.
There is also no value in an olympic swimming event without any athletes. They both bring value to the table, why is the IOC walking away with all the money?
Replace one set of unknown athletes with another set of unknowns and it's the same event to the large majority of viewers.
Replace the olympics with the world championships and suddenly nobody is watching (in most of these sports). You remember how great that 2015 world championship in swimming was, right? It was all over tv, right?
People care about the olympics far more than they care about the athletes.
Yes I know men's basketball and a few others are exceptions, but they're also the ones nobody is worried about being paid.
>Replace the olympics with the world championships and suddenly nobody is watching (in most of these sports). You remember how great that 2015 world championship in swimming was, right? It was all over tv, right?
Don't make the mistake of confusing, olympics - the event with the organizers. Swap the organizers of the Olympics with that of the World Championship and no one is going to notice any difference. Swap Usain Bolt with some other guy and the race becomes meaningless. Swap any executive with another and no one gives a shit. The Olympics are primarily about the athletes and nominally about the executive officers. Nobody gives a shit about them - I can understand officials making 50K$ the year of the Olympics but I don't understand why they need to be paid any more than that. They have organized terribly in Rio and one exec can be swapped for another and no one would care.
> > Replace the olympics with the world championships and suddenly nobody is watching (in most of these sports). You remember how great that 2015 world championship in swimming was, right? It was all over tv, right?
> Don't make the mistake of confusing, olympics - the event with the organizers. Swap the organizers of the Olympics with that of the World Championship and no one is going to notice any difference. Swap Usain Bolt with some other guy and the race becomes meaningless. Swap any executive with another and no one gives a shit.
Er, the World Championships of any sport that is also in the Olympics generally consists of the same pool of athletes, and the same bureaucrats in the sport-specific governing body. What differs is: (1) The Olympics also have Olympic bureaucrats, (2) Scheduling, (3) Name of the event ("Olympics" vs. "World Championship").
In the most market/libertarian sense you are right: athletes in highly visible sports do seem to make a lot more than those in not-visible sports. Market forces at work.
However, the salaries of the brass are made up off money made in television deals and other promotions. Network effects do have an impact on the size of the pie. So even the javelin matters if only for the size of the pie. It wouldn't be the Olympics with only soccer, it would be the World Cup.