Funding for Olympic sports will have to be prioritised if there is less money available, UK Sport performance director Peter Keen has warned.
A planned £600m package is currently short by £79m because of a shortfall from the private sector.
Sports that missed out on medals in Beijing will find out on 2 December whether they have less cash for 2012.
"(If there is a shortfall) we will do the things that matter most," Keen told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"No athlete should go to a start line with the burden of having to win a medal to secure funding"
But the other governing bodies, including those for hockey and handball, face an anxious wait for UK Sport - the body responsible for distributing funding - to announce its decision.
"Some are much more vulnerable than others," BBC sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar said.
"Those that have done well and hit targets - sailing, cycling, rowing and swimming - will be fine.
"Those who have missed targets like shooting, archery and judo will be very anxious.
"It's a big reflection of the harsher economic realities of the time we live in - UK Sport can only spend what they've actually got."
Keen insisted he would "make the money work", whatever the resources available.
"We'll be very clear about the ultimate outcomes: success at the highest level and a legacy of system underneath it that makes sure it is there for the next generation," he said.
British sprint hurdler Andy Turner is one of those affected by the funding cuts.
"I completely understand UK Sport want results, and this year I didn't give them the results they wanted"
Turner bowed out of the men's 100m hurdles event at the second round stage in Beijing, and as a result lost his funding from UK Sport - but he is appealing against the decision.
"I'd had a bad year with injuries and so on," he explained.
"At the start of the year I sat down with my coach and I knew the kind of time it would take to qualify for the final. The season before I'd been making those times.
"But I've had my funding completely cut. I completely understand UK Sport want results, and this year I didn't give them the results they wanted.
"I can understand why I've been cut, but the criteria to be lottery funded state you have to be able to make a final now or within the next two years.
"I'm appealing because the times I've been running over the last two years would have made me top five in any world or Olympic final in the last two years."
"If we don't have sufficient funding, some athletes will say they just can't afford to play hockey"
Keen, who was behind British Cycling's transformation into an Olympic power, was eager to move the focus of the funding debate from individual athletes to overall programmes.
"No athlete should go to a start line with the burden of having to win a medal to secure funding. That is a recipe for failure and we know that," he explained.
"The money buys us a place in the race; it doesn't buy you a single result.
"That comes from the lives these people lead and the ambition and the drive they have to achieve it."
However, team sports like hockey and handball are expected to suffer when funding plans are revealed in December.
"It's quite an uncomfortable time for hockey at the moment," David Faulker, performance director for GB hockey, told 5 Live.
"Three years ago we agreed with UK Sport a realistic finish in Beijing was eighth, but we came back with fifth (for the men's team) and sixth (for the women).
606: DEBATE
"Athlete retention has been a huge challenge for our sport, (and) if we don't have sufficient funding, some athletes will say they just can't afford to do it."
Lorraine Brown, performance programme manager for the British handball team, said that having been guaranteed a place in 2012 as hosts, the sport was desperate to avoid conflict with UK Sport.
"From our point of view having a home Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for handball to get on the radar in Britain," she said.
"We've set everything up to work towards that, and we certainly don't want to get into a squabble."
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