Jimmy Masina is an athlete leader from South Africa and works as an Office Assistant for Special Olympics Africa. He was chosen as an official for Unified 7-a-side and 5-a-side football for the Abu Dhabi 2019 World Games.

In addition to officiating football, he officiates floor hockey. His first time officiating internationally was at the 2009 World Winter Games in Idaho. In his own words, “it was the best experience. It was my first international trip. It was not easy; many people had more experience than me, and I learned a lot. Working with the other officials, I felt not undermined. Outside of officiating, I learned how the other Programs do their floor hockey games, etc. and even some other sporting events/programming.”

After the 2009 World Games, he officiated again at the Athens 2011 World Games. In 2012, he officiated at the Special Olympics Africa Regional Football Unity Cup Tournament. He then officiated floor hockey at the 2013 World Winter Games in South Korea and football (5-a-side) at the Los Angeles 2015 World Games. At the Austria 2017 World Winter Games, he officiated one of the longest floor hockey games of all time. It took three hours.

Jimmy started as an official in 1999 after deciding to play floor hockey: “One of the assistant staff (working at the kitchen) could not train us at a particular time [because] she had to go cook for the athletes in the school. I took the lead to train other athletes during the extramural activities, and I was a goalkeeper for the team. Then my school received an invitation [for me] to come and participate as an official for floor hockey. This was in the times where only two Programs in South Africa were implementing floor hockey out of the nine provinces. By the way, floor hockey in the country is not only a winter sport, but we play it year round!