Every sport has pros that represent the pinnacle of their sport, and something for practitioners to admire and strive towards. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Federer, etc. Even more fringe sports like wing suit, base jumping, climbing, badminton, whatever, have sponsored athletes that people admire and want to be like.
I have no idea who is famous in sports like wing suit, base jumping, climbing, or badminton. Not a clue. I don't participate in those activities, and I don't read about them. In terms of audience appeal, stock car racing is one of the most popular sports in America, and I know many people idolize its stars, but I have no interest in it and only know the names of people who do something crazy enough to make national news, like running over a competitor.
On the other hand, I know a lot of what I consider to be big names in scuba. I am very happy to have met and dived with some of them. I admire their accomplishments the way people in those other sports admire the accomplishments of their stars.
As far as being sponsored goes, you can bet that some of them are sponsored and pay very little, if anything, for the equipment they use. Even a nobody like me gets very good deals on equipment because I am an instructor and vendors want students to see me in their gear.