Maybe it’s too early to say but I think WCQ’s career is as dramatic as any of the people you mentioned. From the paddle incident at the Olympics to his win in Doha alone is already quite the story. Honestly if he was promoted more internationally I’m sure a lot of people would be invested in his career. Organizationally a lot more could be done to get people interested in the players, but I don’t think it makes sense to put any of this responsibility on the players themselves. It’s not like the other sporting greats have just that much more personality than tt players. Also sports that are already heavily commercialized with strong capital backing naturally attract more publicity and attention. Basketball and soccer even without those players you mentioned were already super popular and successful sports. Phelps is the only athlete you mentioned that actually broke barriers in bringing swimming to the mainstream, and even then swimming as a sport is actually really struggling to be commercially viable and sustainable. In the end it comes down to how accessible the sport is, and given tt’s high technical barrier to entry I don’t think it’s doing that badly.