IN ANCIENT GREECE it was impossible to stitch a sponsor's logo to an Olympic athlete's singlet or shorts, because the competitors were all naked. In today's London it is still impossible. Though clothing is now allowed at the Olympics-indeed it is compulsory-so is a veneer of amateurism. No advertisements are allowed in the stadium; no logos may be emblazoned on the athletes' kit (except at the Paralympics: see article).
在古希腊，人们不可能把赞助商的商标缝在一位奥运运动员的背心或是短裤上，因为当时选手们都是裸体参赛的。在今天的伦敦，也仍然不可能。现在的奥运会允许穿衣服——实际上，必须穿衣服——但人们必须以同样的方式对业余性加以掩饰。运动场内不允许张贴广告；运动员用品上不得装饰有任何商标（残奥会是个例外，见另文）。
Behind the veneer, commercial interests are vying furiously for gold. The sums involved make Russian weightlifters look insubstantial. The British government's budget for the games has risen to £9.3 billion ($14.5 billion) from an initial estimate of £2.4 billion. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has raised $4.87 billion in broadcast fees and sponsorship for the four-year cycle that includes the London summer games as well as the Vancouver winter Olympics of 2010. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), which is actually in charge of staging the games, has raised another £700m in sponsorship; it is raking in pots more by selling tickets and licensing souvenirs.
在这种掩饰背后，商业利益为金钱展开了猛烈的争夺，所涉金额庞大得连俄罗斯举重选手都相形见绌。英国政府的奥运会预算已经从初期估计的24亿英镑上涨到了93亿英镑（合145亿美元）。国际奥委会（The International Olympic Committee, IOC）已经为包括伦敦夏季奥运会和2010年温哥华冬季奥运会在内的四年周期筹募了48.7亿美元的广播费用和赞助金。实际主管奥运会举办工作的组织——伦敦奥运会和残奥会组委会（The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, LOCOG）另外筹募了7亿英镑的赞助金；它正在通过销售门票和纪念品授权筹集更多款项。
Five rings to bind them
自有五环来束缚它们
Eleven global sponsors (known as top Olympic partners, or TOPs) pay fat sums to the IOC for the right to use the Olympic brand. Only one TOP sponsor is allowed in each commercial category: Coca-Cola for soft drinks, Panasonic for televisions and so on. This business model dates back to the 1980s. Before then, the Olympics were a commercial mess, with lots of sponsors paying small sums to borrow the Olympic brand in a few cherry-picked markets. Now, the IOC sells much bigger contracts to fewer sponsors. Top-tier deals are long-term (at least eight years) and global. The size of each deal is secret, but the total for all 11 for 2009-12 is $957m.
十一家全球赞助商（称为顶级奥运合作伙伴，即 TOP）向国际奥委会支付大笔金钱以获取奥运商标使用权。 在每一商业类别中只允许有一家 TOP 赞助商：软饮料方面是可口可乐，电视方面是松下，等等。这种商业模式可追溯到20世纪80年代。在80年代之前，奥运会在商业领域一片混乱，大批的的赞助商支付小额资金来借用奥运商标，形成了小范围的择优挑选市场①。如今，国际奥委会仅与少量赞助商合作，签订大额合同。顶级交易具有长期性（至少八年）与全球性。每笔交易的具体数额是保密的，但2009至2012年间与所有十一家赞助商的总交易额为9.57亿美元。
Sponsors can pay in cash, in kind, or both. For example, Atos, a French consultancy, is a top-tier sponsor. It also manages the information technology for the games. In its command room overlooking London's Docklands, 450 technicians and support staff hunch over screens. Among other things Atos handles the accreditation system for all 250,000 athletes, trainers and hangers-on. This means creating a big database for personal information for people from all parts of the world. It has to hook up with the British immigration authorities, so everyone who needs a visa gets one. And it has to be secure: visiting prime ministers don't want their private data published on WikiLeaks.
赞助商可以通过现金支付或者通过服务支付，也可以两种手段并用。比如，法国咨询公司阿托斯（Atos）是一家顶级赞助商。它还为奥运会进行信息技术方面的管理。该公司的指挥间俯瞰伦敦港口区，其中有450名技术人员和支持人员俯身看着监视器屏幕。此外阿托斯还负责处理所有25万名运动员、教练员和陪同人员的认证系统。这意味着为来自世界各地的人们建立起庞大的个人信息数据库。该公司需要与英国移民局进行联系，为有需要的人们提供签证。它还需要保证安全性：来访的各国政要可不希望自己的私人信息被公布在维基解密上②。
The pay-off for Atos comes from proving it can do all this. "It's the only project of this magnitude that has a deadline you can't change at all," says Patrick Adiba, Atos's man on the spot. There is also no room for serious errors, he says: "You can't ask Usain Bolt to rerun the 100 metres because the technology didn't work." So every system has backups: some have four.
给阿托斯的报偿取决于它如何证明所有这些它都能做到。在场的阿托斯职员 Patrick Adiba 说："这是项重要无比的工程，你必须按期完成。"他还表示同样不允许出现严重失误："你也不能因为技术方面出了差错而要求 Usain Bolt（一位田径运动员）再重新去跑100米。"因此每个系统都进行了备份：部分系统甚至有四份备份。
All this is costly. But it lets Atos boast to potential customers: if we can handle both the summer and winter Olympics, we can probably handle your project. The Olympics generate hundreds of millions of euros of new business for Atos every year, reckons Mr Adiba.
所有这些都代价高昂。但它也让阿托斯有了对潜在顾客吹嘘的资本：如果我们能办好夏奥会和冬奥会，我们应该也能办好贵公司的项目。Adiba 估计奥运会每年为阿托斯带来了上亿欧元的新业务。