Take, for example, Olympic winter sports.

Between 2002 and 2010, contributions made from Winter Olympic Games revenues to the relevant Winter Olympic International Federations (IFs) collectively more than doubled from $92 million (£73.2 million/€85 million) after Salt Lake City 2002 to $209 million (£166.4 million/€193.3 million) after Vancouver 2010.

Over the next eight years, these payments essentially trod water, ebbing back initially to $199 million (£158.4 million/€184 million) after Sochi 2014, before thrusting just beyond the mark set by Vancouver to $215 million (£171 million/€199 million) after Pyeongchang 2018.

Now, thanks to the newly-published 2022 financial report of the International Skating Union (ISU), one of the leading Winter Olympic IFs, we can see that the numbers have started heading down again.

Some of the small print in the 23-page report - which revealed a CHF19.1 million (£16.7 million/$21 million/€19.5 million) overall loss for the ISU in what was a Winter Olympic year - discusses details of the ISU’s Beijing 2022-related income.

The relevant passages state, first, that these payments were "lower than the 2018 Pyeongchang Games" and that the reduction - "equally spread over four years" - amounted to CHF1.2 million (£1.05 million/$1.33 million/€1.23 million) per annum.

The report later elaborates: "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) incomes from the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing have been allocated equally over the period 2022 through 2025.

"Since the Beijing Games financial results were negatively affected by the Covid-19 counter-measures and absence of spectators, the IOC contribution to the seven International Winter Sports Federation[s] was consequently also lower than in 2018.

"In the case of the ISU, the reduction amounted to CHF4.8 million (£4.2 million/$5.3 million/€4.9 million) or CHF1.2 million per year."

I have been attempting to extrapolate what this might mean for the overall payment figure.

It looks like the ISU's Pyeongchang 2018-related payment translated to CHF11.06 million (£9.72 million/$12.2 million/€11.3 million) a year, or CHF44.2 million (£38.85 million/$48.8 million/€45.2 million) in total.

Annual Beijing 2022-related monies, meanwhile, look set to amount to CHF9.86 million (£8.67 million/$10.9 million/€10.1 million), for a quadrennial total of CHF39.4 million (£34.6 million/$43.5 million/€40.3 million).

That would equate to a reduction of a bit less than 11 per cent.

The US dollar-Swiss franc exchange rate will obviously impact the calculation, but if the overall post-Pyeongchang 2018 payment to IFs of $215 million were similarly down by 11 per cent, that would cut it to something like $192 million (£152.8 million/€177.6 million), ie back below the Sochi 2014 pay-out.

Scrutinising historical currency charts, it looks like the Swiss franc has strengthened a little against the US dollar since 2018, suggesting to me that the overall Beijing 2022-related payment to IFs could well have been somewhat higher than the ISU’s near-11 per cent quad-on-quad cut would imply.

I am told that a definitive figure should be available before the end of this month.

In truth, where exactly either side of $200 million (£160 million/€185 million) the Beijing 2022 payment to IFs has ended up makes scant difference to the overall point: there has been little increase since 2010.

This at a time when the earnings/valuations of some other favoured sports and organisations have been very much on a rising trajectory.

And, perhaps more to the point, inflation has spiked higher in many countries in recent months, putting pressure on costs even as Winter Olympic Games-related revenues remain stuck, broadly, at around 2010 levels, all the way through now until (at least) 2025.

Of course, Winter Olympic IFs have other revenue sources.

Nonetheless, even for a relatively big IF such as the ISU, the Winter Olympic-related payment accounted for some 28 per cent of total operating income in 2022; this proportion had reached nearly 40 per cent in 2021, but that was an abnormal year.

IFs must be hopeful that with the Winter Games returning to Western Europe next time around, the event’s commercial performance will be strong enough to trigger the first really substantial increase in Winter Olympic-related payments since 2010.

Then again, 2026 is still quite a long way away.