Never, ever, sign a contract that requires you use blood instead of ink. Laure Manadou just learned that.

Laure Manaudou signed in blood on the dotted line without the advice of a lawyer or her father and now rumors in and around the 'blogosphere' state that Satan's holding company will be auctioning off fragments her immortal soul on eBay. '0_o'

Actually, I made that up; but you knew that. However, are the following allegations below made by Laure Manaudou's father made up as well? From Swim News:

"...The contract, said Jean-Luc [Manaudou], held that Manaudou would pay for promotional activities should she wish to develop her Arena International collection. It also holds that the swimmer would forfeit up to 75 per cent of the value of the deal if she does not win in Beijing. ..." [Link]

I started thinking about the 'Kate Ziegler's effect' when I read that last clause. Keep in mind that taxes are 48.9% in France. If Laure lost, she would only get to keep 12% or her estimated 2 million Euros per year. Granted you can buy plenty of soup and Pinot Noir with 250k Euros, but you won't be able to retire off your earnings.

Swim News has another article that discusses, Paolo Penso's, La Presse team's reaction which is translated by Swim News: " ...LaPresse then poses a series of questions, including]: Who has an interest in the rights to images of Laure Manaudou? Who is fearful of losing predicted millions by losing control over the champion? Who is preventing the athlete from living autonomously and independently? Who are the managers set to earn 20 to 25 per cent of [Manaudou's earnings]? [Link]

So, what do we have? La Presse originally said they "fired" Laure Manaudou for not wanting to work hard enough. Laure's group said, it was a bad contract. La Presse wonders aloud with rhetorical questions as to who she is accusing but they later site that that they are entitled to compensation.

Hence, there are three sides to this story: Laure's side; La Presse's side; and the truth. (I think the 3-sides quote comes from a song Don Henley wrote?)

The beautiful photo in the above right was taken from guyomedw's photostream at Flickr.com. He can be contacted at: guyomedw[at]mac.com