The big crowd at the athletic arena seemed to have enjoyed the parallal and horizontal bar exhibition immensely. The three-man team from the Korea Q P.O.W.'s showed their versatility as gymnasts, going through some extremely difficult routines! some of which had never been seen before by many in the audience.
The crowd received their enjoyment in watching the performance of the very popular athlete, John "Rotorhead" Thornton. He was three time A.A.U. Champ-'40, '41, '46--"in parallel and horizontal bar events while performing with the Germantown (Pennsylvania) Y.M.C.A., National Gymnastic Champs in 1941, and with the University of Pennsylvania. John lso advanced to the semi-finals of the qualifications for the U.S.A. Olympic Team of 1948.
Thornton thought highly of the performance of the Korean team, and while doing a "back dislocate", a front swinging "pirouette" and the extremely difficult "back somersault off' he managed to draw applause and Oh's and Ah's from the Korean team as well as the audience. John made a terrific hit with all, providing many laughs. A hint to the wise-'-'don't let the moustache foot you, John is very active in sports and he's not quite as old as he looks !

November 18, 1952 Olympic Roundup

 

 

 

John W. Thorton geos over the horizontal bar.

Edward M. Lay recieves the championship banner fot the teams
outstanding performance

Donald G. Cloud does his stuff on the parallel bars.

This team makes a colorful beginning in their exhibition of P.T.