First off, the Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis 30 for 30 was great. It was the first big time steroid scandal in track. That said, I think drugs have taken a lot of the interest out of the sport. For instance, Bob Beamon's jump was generational. If something like that happened today, we'd have less of a sense of awe. We've been conditioned (rightly so) to be suspicious. There are no supermen or wonder women any more. The nature of the sport make it hard to hide drug use. Whereas, in the NFL and NBA and other team sports, we can look the other way.
The truly elite distance runners aren't the most interesting people. There's a bunch of similar tropes. The African trope is running to school and back everyday. That story becomes less interesting if you've heard about that challenge for decades.
There probably are a lot of great individual stories amongst the Africans, but we rarely hear them. Part of this is language. The other part is that maybe we don't care. Lopez Lomong has an interestng story, because it's about survival and overcoming great odds. Conversely, Galen Rupp is a medallist, but his success isn't that interesting. A paved road, despite all of his hard work, isn't rivetting tv. His Olympic 10k race was amazing to watch, but would people watch a story about his life. There are Lifetime movies that I'd be more apt to watch (anything with Candace Cameron or Meredith Baxter, for instance)
Another aspect is that the IAAF commodifies athletes. Athletes now are replacable cogs to the governing body. It's not a star-driven sport. There's Bolt who may arguable be the only legitimate star in the sport. By legitimate--an athlete that everyone around the world knows. (Ronaldo, Federer, Armstrong). The American athletes that do try to promote themselves, aren't overly marketable to a wider market. LoLo Jones was a great story, but she comes off as really needy and she never medalled. In mid-distance, Symmonds tries, but has no Olympic medal and he comes off as a look-at-me guy that will do anything for attention. Our top short sprinters (who have medals) have drug cases (Gaitlin, Gay)--and how do you promote that?
Through writing this (and putting off work) I think the one athlete that would be really interesting to do a story on is Meb. Olympic medallist. African refugee. American dream and awesome family. Boston winner at 39. Great guy. Lomong as well. For women, I'd watch stories on Benoit, Decker, FloJo, and am really struggling to think someone modern.
Who am I missing? What other runners have a story that appeals to the general population outside of our niche?