It was almost the other way round last weekend with Germany's "Sportler des Jahres". This is a prize voted for by sports journalists only, not the public, so I guess there could be some backroom deals or generally intransparent processes. Kaul and Lückenkemper won the single awards and even athletics fans found it unfair that mere European champions prevailed vs. winners from the winter olympics. Regardless of the popularity of the sports, there certainly was the factor of the European championships at home and the emotionally involving stories and engaging personalities (Kaul winning in the last discipline, Gina by a hair's breadth etc. ) and that the winter olympics had been early in the year in hostile China with viewer-unfriendly schedules. And Mihambo had won three times in a row, so despite world champion they didn't want to pick her again.
Such awards are rubbish anyway but I am not complaining if athletics gets more screentime through them. (Unfortunately, this might also work as compensation: Ignore athletics for most of the year except for the biggest events and make up for it in winter with a useless award.)