London’s Olympic 2012 Scramble

British Olympic legend Sebastian Coe didn’t face any hurdles when he was winning gold in 1980 and 1984. He was a distance runner. But as chairman of London 2012, he faces a big one: The economy.

Steering the city’s summer games got a lot more daunting in the midst of a global financial crisis. Coe’s organization has so far sold 500 million pounds in corporate sponsorships en route to a goal of 700 million pounds (just over $1 billion U.S.). The games will cost an estimated 2 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) overall.

That means putting less effort into selling and more into bartering–the Olympic business lingo is “value in kind”–in trying to trim the cash requirements for the event.