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Overwhelming favourite Kim Yu-Na of South Korea shrugged off massive expectation to win a stunning gold in the women’s figure skating on Thursday.

Kim scored 150.06 in her free programme at the Pacific Coliseum for a world-record total of 228.56 to win gold ahead of Japan’s Mao Asada in 205.50.

Home favourite Joannie Rochette, whose mother recently died, beat Mirai Nagasu of the United States to the bronze.

Rochette’s mother died of a heart attack only four days ago.

The Canadian skater received a standing ovation before and after her routine and her bronze medal was warmly received by the thousands of spectators inside the Pacific Coliseum.

"I feel proud and the result did not matter," she said.

"I’m happy to be on the podium. It was a lifetime project for me and my mom and we achieved that."

Kim is the reigning world champion and led going into Friday’s free skate and produced a fine performance to seal the gold in Vancouver.

The 19-year-old has made a habit of spectacular performances, but even she was dazzled by this one.

She said "Oh my god." when she saw the monstrous score – a mark her top competitors can only dream of – and coach Brian Orser pumped both arms, shaking his clasped fists over each shoulder.

It will go down as one of the greatest performances in figure skating history, and is South Korea’s first medal at the Winter Olympics in a sport other than speed skating.

"I can’t believe this day has finally come for me," said Kim.

"I still can’t believe the score that I received, I’m really surprised. It’s almost as close as the men’s score."

"In the past, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted, but I am really happy that I was able to show everything I did in training.

"Watching previous figure skaters, I always wondered why they cried after their performance. Crying for the first time today, I still don’t know why I did."

Differences have emerged as President Barack Obama urged top Republicans and Democrats to focus on agreements at a six-hour televised healthcare summit.

He urged 40 congressional Democrats and Republicans in Washington DC to avoid political theatre, as part of a fresh bid to save his troubled reform plans.

For the first time, Mr Obama offered his own version of a healthcare plan on Monday.

But Republicans say the plan is not acceptable and a fresh start is needed.

The BBC’s Paul Adams, in Washington, says the passionate showdown may mark the beginning of a bruising end game, with the Democrats seemingly ready to get the legislation passed any way they can.

But analysts say the contentious debate is likely to be beset by bipartisanship: even the shape of the table for the debate at Blair House, opposite the White House, has been the subject of dispute.

President Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and other leading Democrats are facing senior Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Partisan battle

Mr Obama opened the debate by emphasising that everyone present understood the importance of the healthcare issue, adding that there were significant points of potential agreement between the two parties on healthcare reform.

"We all know this is urgent and unfortunately, despite all the negotiations that have taken place, it became a very ideological battle; it became a very partisan battle where politics ended up trumping common sense," he said.

He added that he wanted to avoid the televised session becoming merely political theatre, hoping that those involved would work together to try to solve the problem.

"If we keep an open mind and are not trying to score political points then we may be able to make some progress," he said.

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander responded by saying that in order for Mr Obama to succeed on healthcare, he should scrap the health care bill that Senate Democrats passed in December, and start afresh with a clean sheet of paper.

"If we can start over, we can write a healthcare bill," he said. "It means working together… reducing healthcare costs… and going step-by-step to regain the trust of the American people."

Republican Senator Jon Kyl went on to argue that Democratic efforts to overhaul the current system would give Washington too much control over healthcare.

"There are some fundamental differences between us here that we cannot paper over," said Mr Kyl. "We do not agree about the fundamental question about who should be mostly in charge.

Cost of reforms?

The BBC’s Mark Mardell in Washington says the key to the outcome may be the way the president is chairing the meeting – firmly, making notes, trying to drag the Republicans into a concrete debate on detailed issues.

So far, our correspondent says, he is succeeding.

But, he adds, there is almost no chance of the 17 or so Republicans agreeing to anything that is on the table.

The House of Representatives and the Senate passed separate healthcare bills at the end of last year.

But efforts to merge them and sign a bill into law collapsed last month when Republicans won a special election in Massachusetts.

The victory deprived Democrats of their crucial filibuster-proof 60-seat Senate majority.

The White House has signalled it may end up driving through a bill using a procedure called budget reconciliation, which only needs a majority vote.

Republicans said they would use Thursday’s talks to highlight the cost of the Democrats’ reforms, while outlining their own more scaled-back approach.

Democrats are expected to seek to portray the Republicans’ plans as inadequate.

‘Photo op’

The meeting – which began at 1000 (1500 GMT) – is debating controlling costs, insurance reforms, deficit reduction and expanding coverage.

A USA Today/Gallup poll showed that barely one fifth of respondents thought the televised summit would yield a deal.

On the eve of the talks, one House Republican, Michael Burgess of Texas, derided it as a "six-hour photo op" for President Obama.

House deputy Republican leader Eric Cantor said: "Democrats are farther away from securing the votes to pass a government healthcare bill today than they have ever been."

Despite the tussling, the parties proved they could find common ground on healthcare.

On Wednesday, the House voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill scrapping the exemption from federal anti-trust law that health insurance companies have long enjoyed.

The president has invested much political capital in his plans to make nearly all Americans take out health insurance and to stop abuses by insurance firms.

But the issue has become a rallying standard for conservatives, who say Mr Obama is bent on introducing European-style big government.

It has also worried a recession-mauled American public, which is not clear about how much reforms would cost them.

The US is the world’s richest nation and the only industrialised democracy that does not provide healthcare coverage to all its citizens.

Li Ya Fang does not look or sound much like a migrant worker.

For a start she has a college degree – she is wearing her university T-shirt when we meet.

But technically she is a migrant working many hundreds of kilometres from home – three days’ train ride from Shanghai, where she went to school.

She is working as a teacher near Pu’er, in Yunnan province in the south-west of China. The Communist Youth League sent her here.

Since 2003 more than 1,400 young people from Shanghai have been sent by the Communist Youth League to the interior of China.

Usually there are about 200 of them each year. This year the figure was nearly 50% higher – 295.

The scheme was oversubscribed – there were about five applicants for each position, which is why they increased the size of the programme.

The financial crisis has made it harder for graduates to find work, and a one-year job working in development in the west looks good on the resume.

It also serves the purpose of giving you something to do while you wait for the job market to improve.

Li Ya Fang’s reasons for coming were more altruistic, she says.

"I came here because I saw a banner on my university campus. ‘Go West,’ it said, ‘go to the place where your country needs you most’."

She smiles as she tells the story. "I was touched when I saw it," she explains.

So now she finds herself standing in front of a class of 12-year-olds in the Yunnan countryside, teaching them Chinese.

"On the one hand I am here to do something for the local people," she insists. "On the other hand, I’m learning a lot from them too."

Coming back home

For years, migrants have moved from the west of China to the richer parts of the country in the east – the coastal provinces – to work in factories.

Ms Li is not the only person here who’s lived the life of a migrant.

One of her pupils, Xia Yun, was living with her mother, a migrant worker on the other side of the country, until last year.

Now she lives in a little wooden house, on the side of a hill, with a small stone courtyard where the pigs, chickens and dogs are housed.

Xia came back last year from Zhejiang province when her grandmother, who had been helping to look after her there, returned to Yunnan.

Like most 12-year-olds, Xia is pretty shy, but it’s clear from our conversation that she misses her parents a lot.

"My mother will come home next month to visit," she explains, "but I won’t see my father until the Spring Festival [in February next year]."

She says life was better in Zhejiang because her parents were around.

The move has been quite disruptive for her studies too.

"Here I live closer to the school, but the lessons are simpler here – the schoolwork was harder in Zhejiang."

We eat lunch at a tiny restaurant down the road from Xia’s house, where they fry up locally grown vegetables in a huge wok fixed over a fire.

The school’s head teacher, Lee Xiang Zhong, joins us for the meal. He is very happy with Li Ya Fang’s performance, especially the fact she has decided to stay for a second year.

"She’s devoted to the job," he explains as he picks at the dishes on the table with his chopsticks. "We are proud of her."

Mr Lee says the children in his school who are the offspring of migrant workers often find life harder than the others who live with their parents.

"We have some children who board with us because of this," he says. "They don’t have enough clothing. They don’t have enough money. Their life is very hard."

Important experience

Back at school the children are sweeping up – getting the classroom ready for the afternoon lessons.

Pausing for a moment after handing out tasks for her pupils to complete, Ms Li insists that although life here can be tough, away from the comforts of her old life in the city, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive.

"I wanted to know what life was like in western China, in a rural area. I wouldn’t have had this opportunity if I had gone to work straight after graduation. It’s been very important for me."

For three decades, migrant workers have left this part of China in large numbers to look for work elsewhere.

The money they’ve sent back has made a huge difference to people’s lives here, but still western China struggles to keep up with the more affluent coastal provinces.

Migrant teacher Ms Li and others like her are bringing valuable skills back west to try to help boost development in the country’s interior.

Back in her classroom she watches her children perform a patriotic song.

Her only worry, she says, is that she won’t be able to help them enough to make good progress.