To Young Divers in O.C., Louganis Is Still Golden : Sports: The ex-champion’s standing among Olympic hopefuls is undiminished by news that he has AIDS.

After diving practice Thursday at the pool where Greg Louganis launched his celebrated Olympic career, Cassie Day clutched a treasured 8-year-old photograph of her idol, who is beaming at the camera with his tanned arm flung around Cassie’s child-sized shoulders.

“He was so good,” said Cassie, a 17-year-old senior at Capistrano Valley High School who hopes to dive competitively in college next year. “He would come back and it made us feel good that he was just an ordinary guy just like us, but he became so great.”

Louganis, 35, a former Nadadores member whose four gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Games made him a hero to a generation of aspiring divers and swimmers, was in the forefront of their thoughts Thursday after revealing that he has AIDS.

In an interview to be shown tonight on the ABC program “20/20,” Louganis said that he tested positive for the AIDS virus just before the 1988 Games in Seoul and now has AIDS. He revealed that he was gay at the Gay Games in New York last year.

At poolsides all over Orange County, youthful athletes expressed shock and sadness at word the AIDS virus had visited another sports idol. But news of Louganis’ illness left unshaken their awe for him, and sparked in some a new admiration for his openness about the disease.

“It’s shocking and sad, but it doesn’t change the way I feel about him being a great diver,” said Sandy Zubrin, 18, of Newport Beach, also a Nadadores diver.

“It’s sad he had to keep it hidden (because of) the stigma of the disease. I think it’s inspirational that he did this,” said Zubrin, who also dives with Corona del Mar High School’s team. “I wish people were more open and not so closed-minded so he could have come out earlier. It took a lot of courage to come out now.”

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Summer Brown, 18, of Mission Viejo, a member of the Nadadores and Capistrano Valley High School diving teams, has a photograph on the refrigerator showing Louganis with her and her sister. At age 11, she got to meet Louganis while he was practicing at the Nadadores pool for the 1988 Olympics.

“I think it’s really sad,” she said. “But it doesn’t change the impact he’s had on diving or even his inspiration in diving. He’s one of the best divers in the world.”

The revelation stirred the same sadness and sense of vulnerability among young athletes that many felt when basketball legend Earvin (Magic) Johnson announced he had tested positive for the AIDS virus in 1991.

“It’s pretty shocking,” said swimmer Steve Taylor, a 17-year-old student at El Modena High School in Orange. “The disease is getting closer to home every day. It starts affecting every aspect of your life--your family, your friends and the sport that you’re in.”

But the connection for young divers in Orange County was even closer because Louganis kept in touch as he trained at the Mission Viejo pool.

Cassie, whose friends had asked her to bring the picture of Louganis to practice Thursday, said she remembered feeling nervous at meeting him that day. She said Louganis took the time to encourage the aspiring athletes to stay disciplined.

“He’d say, ‘I went through times when I wanted to quit too. But you’ve got to keep going,’ ” she said.

And the accident in which Louganis bumped his head on the diving board during preliminaries of the 1988 Summer Games taught young divers not to give up, she said.

“We’d say if Greg can hit his head and come back and compete, we have nothing to be scared of,” she said.

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While most of the aspiring divers and swimmers said their respect for Louganis was unchanged, some worried that news of the disease and renewed publicity over his homosexuality might cloud public perception of their sports.

“Now people are going to think that divers and swimmers are all like him,” said Nicole Mardaresco, 15-year-old student at Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo. “They’ll start stereotyping.”

And several students said Louganis should have revealed he was HIV-positive at the time of the 1988 accident, when he may have bled into the pool and was later stitched by a doctor.

“It kind of seemed like he was worried that people wouldn’t like him as much if they knew he had AIDS,” said 14-year-old Daniel Berzansky, a member of the Irvine Novaquatics swim team and who dreams of becoming a professional competitor.

Instead, what was most clear Thursday was that news of the disease had done little to diminish Louganis’ exalted standing among the next generation of Olympic hopefuls.

“I just think he’s a great diver. I wish he didn’t have AIDS,” said diver Jerod Proulx, 15, of Huntington Beach and a sophomore at Marina High School in Huntington Beach.

“I’d love to be like him.”

Times staff writers David Reyes and correspondents Tom Ragan, Russ Loar and Debra Cano contributed to this story.