It seems disproportionate to other sport, except maybe gymnastics. Some popular sports don’t even have any representation, like cricket or bowling or squash. How did swimming get so much representation?
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It’s firstly important to remember that the Olympics is as much, if not more, about organisation and logistics than representation. It’s easier to include more events for a sport that is already there than to introduce an entirely new sport.
The biggest reason is that the sports with multiple events are logistically easy to organise because they use the same venue. While short-distance and medium-distance races require different skill sets, it’s basically “do more laps around the same track”. Swimming has four major swimming strokes with their own races, so it’s basically all the races x4. You don’t need more facilities or more staff. Plus, they are really quick to run. Adding another race to the program might mean several heats and then finals, but each race is only going to be a few minutes.
In contrast, adding another sport like Rugby Sevens means multiple national teams, multiple qualifying rounds, etc. Each team can only play once per day at a specialised venue. Each team brings logistical issues with their support staff, transportation, accommodation, etc. Furthermore, these other sports typically don’t have that many “events” of their own – it’s typically *one* format. A sport like shooting and archery will have multiple distances and equipment classifications, only some of which are represented, but a sport like tennis pretty much has singles and doubles.
The final thing to consider is that for many of the major sports, the Olympics is *not* the premier event. The respective World Cup / World Championship is more representative of the best of the sport.
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