VANCOUVER VOICE: Living with Yu-Na is a bit like travelling with Princess Diana

AS scrums go it was worthy of rugby's Six Nations. A mass of bodies, pushing and shoving, arms and legs sticking out from all directions. It was hot, sweaty and getting bad-tempered.

ICE QUEEN: Kim Yu-Na celebrates her short program world record, as coach Brian Orser applauds his charge at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum (Getty Images)

Welcome to the mixed zone at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum - the dungeon below the ice where athletes stop to share their thoughts with the media - about 30 minutes after Kim Yu-Na had made her Olympic debut.

It's safe to say that if you are a Korean journalist covering the figure skating - or an interested international observer - it helps to be a contortionist.

Kim Yu-Na - who stands on the verge of winning the women's figure skating gold after a world record short program score - is more than a sports star.

Her every move is followed with scrutiny by a voracious media that makes the much-maligned finest of Great Britain's Fleet Street look like pussy cats.

Paps and hacks are everywhere she goes, cameras never stop rolling, a slight stumble during practice is relayed to an expectant public back home like a breaking news flash.

Coach Brian Orser - a Canadian who won Olympic figure skating silver in 1988 - admits he is bemused by the attention his charge receives, although having lived through the Battle of the Brians, his on-ice rivalry with American Brian Boitano, he can empathise.

"I suppose it's a bit like traveling with Princess Diana," he said.

"Now she needs bodyguards and it's really incredible.

"Her country has embraced her and they love her and she's very gracious about it. 

"But it's fun and I get to go along for the ride."