For many Olympic fans, the return of professional figure skaters has drawn excitement and praise. While you smile as they accept their medals, please think of me, because the return of these pros makes me sick.

Just by being at these Games, they have taken the spotlight away from a fellow countryman who just wanted to compete. How ironic. For some reason, I thought the word "professional" stood for respect, fairness and the highest of standards. Aren Nielsen, third at our nationals behind Brian Boitano, is watching on television just like us.

I won't dispute the argument that a country wants to send its best athletes to the Olympics. Ideally, that is what the Games are for. But an entire sport was changed to accommodate the skating elite.

These skaters made a choice. The rule was, if you turned pro, you stayed there. Each of them knew this. A few years and a lot of whining later, they came back. And now I can't help but think of what could have been.

Canadians Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler settled for the bronze behind two Russian pairs who had to have more.

Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, never given a chance to show themselves as the next Russian power, stayed in the shadows of their returning teammates, finishing fourth.

Americans Jenni Meno and Todd Sand had the performance of their lives and would have won a rare American medal, a bronze, in pairs. They finished fifth.

Before the Games even began, the competition was conceded to the pros. But for me, these faces are soon forgotten. The medals they win in Norway will forever be tarnished. The real faces of these Games are a little harder to find.

The spirit of the Olympics is in the face of American pairs skater Kyoko Ina. After hitting every difficult move in the book, she smiled despite receiving ridiculously low marks, as low as 4.9, for her free program.

The triumph of the Games is seen in the face of Karen Courtland, half of another American pair. Barely making the team, she and Todd Reynolds came to Norway after a rough season. It wasn't perfect, but it was their best.

The pure joy in the smile of Courtland's mother, giving a standing ovation after her daughter's 13th-place performance, says more than any gold medal can.

The true meaning of the Games is seen in American ice dancer Elizabeth Punsalan, who managed a smile at her Olympic ice arrival just two weeks after her father was murdered.

But the most poignant memory came through tragedy. German skaters Mandy Wotzel and Ingo Steuer, the current world silver medalists, ended their first Olympics together unfulfilled after a mishap they had no control over. Catching an edge in the middle of the program, Wotzel fell to the ice, her chin bouncing off the surface, drawing blood.

Steuer comforted his partner, carrying her off the ice in his arms. To me, the spirit of the Games is seen in the face of a stunned German beauty and her stoic partner, who had the courage and spirit to pick themselves up and shrug off misfortune, to dream of another day.

Enjoy your medals, professionals. Get what you came for and get out. You may have tainted the true spirit of the Olympics and your sport, but to me, the true memories of these Games will be with these other skaters, the ones whose dreams you have deferred -- some for four years, some forever.