Before every competition, Arseni Mashko has pretty much the same routine.
No food. If he eats too much or too heavy foods, he’ll be nauseous due to the physical exertion of rowing.
He finds consistency in select podcast interviews from Russian interviewer and host, Yuri Dud, featuring celebrities, politicians, musicians, athletes and public figures.
“It’s mostly because I already know the tone and flow of it, so it doesn’t distract me or pull my focus away,” Mashko said. “It kind of helps me reset mentally and get into a simple, clear headspace right before competing. I don’t really watch it at other times, so it stays tied specifically to that ‘pre-start’ feeling.”
And, he listens to music. His music playlist opens with something calm, a composition by Hans Zimmer or Ludovico Einaudi, for example.
“Just to focus and visualize,” he said.
Then, he switches to something more energizing like the Afro House Mix by Hugel. The playlist has a strong beat and rhythm and switches his mindset into action. He says this is important to get him into a steady pace.
And then, right before he leaves land and takes to the water, before he takes position, before the paddles skim the water and he forms his own rhythm of push and pull, he chooses something more aggressive – a song that will punctuate and hype him up, like “Started From The Bottom” by Drake or Nirvana.
Mashko is now in race mode.
His pre-competition music playlist is one part of the many minutes, hours and years it has taken him to compete internationally in canoeing and kayaking.
The competitions and bootcamps he’s kayaked or canoed have taken him to many places throughout Europe, including Turkey, Georgia and Poland. And, more recently, it’s brought him to the United States from Belarus.
Mashko is a senior at Point Loma Nazarene University, studying data science. He came to the U.S. in 2022. He’s here, in part, because of a scholarship that he gets through being on the San Diego Canoe Kayak team based at Mission Bay.
His journey to the United States is tethered to the sport and he began competing at the age of 10.
Much of his upbringing in Belarus centered around athletics and sports. He played soccer, swam and skied. All were enjoyable, but when he discovered kayaking and canoeing, something clicked.
“I got lucky. I got a very great coach that kind of gave me that passion,” Mashko said. “He was very attentive. He had his own approach to everybody. He was talented as a coach.”
Mashko said he didn’t find success or wins in his first few years of learning the sport. But with time and disciplined practice, he began taking home hardware.
“Passion and motivation is over talent,” Mashko said. “I was very consistent with practicing every day, 10 times a week basically. I had two practices a day.”
His hard work paid dividends. He started winning at the age of 14 and went to an Olympic Reserve complex in Belarus.
He dreamed of studying in the U.S. but needed doors to open for him in the sport. With continued practice and growth, he won competitions in Belarus, Poland and Russia. His success back home served as a launching pad for him to explore his options outside of Belarus, including in the U.S. After securing the scholarship, he came to the U.S. in 2022.
“In my first year, I won Junior Men’s K1 200m and K1 500m at the 2023 USA Sprint Team Trials,” he said. “Then, in 2024, unfortunately, there was an eligibility gap.”
He said he couldn’t compete because it was an Olympic year, and he didn’t have a U.S. passport. So, he had to set his eyes ahead and train for 2025. In the same timeframe, he aged out of competing in the youth category, so the stakes and competitors changed.
“It was really hard for me to be competitive around adults,” Mashko said.
Despite the setback and challenges, his discipline remained. He practices almost everyday, sometimes twice per day, except Sunday. Mashko wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and commutes from Rancho Bernardo to Mission Bay for practice at 6:15 a.m.
He gets into the kayak to take on a channel at Fiesta Island from 6:15 to around 8 a.m.
And then he’s at PLNU for classes by 8 a.m. After finishing classes around 2 p.m., he goes back to the club for an afternoon practice or volunteering with the kids who are enrolled at the club to learn the sport.
“It is hard but it is fun at the same time, you know,” Mashko said. “Makes me feel alive.”
He’s working toward an ambitious goal.
“This year, I’m specifically practicing really hard ‘cause I want to get a medal again this year,” he said. “I really love this sport and I really want to represent the country.”
That is his end goal: to be selected to represent the United States at a World Cup.
“I just want to represent this country in any sanctioned world competitions, you know?” Mashko said. “Because it is something that really makes me very fired up. It’s like a final goal.”
On top of maintaining his practices and school schedule, Mashko has had to learn and challenge himself to navigate a new country. That journey didn’t come without setbacks.
“First of all was an English barrier,” Mashko explained. “I mean, I still struggle sometimes, but back in the days [it] was a really big deal because I just got here. All the school was in English. Everything was in English. It was like a first struggle.”
He credits his coach on the Mission Bay kayak team for helping him acclimate to the new country.
“He was the one that had helped me with transportation, helped me with communication, helped me when the times were hard,” Mashko said. “He was the one that helped me over my journey in America.”
Mashko also missed his home. But he leaned into his community at PLNU and his kayak team to combat the loneliness.
“It is hard but it is fun at the same time, you know. Makes me feel alive.”
“It was just a matter of time,” he said. “As soon as I started talking to my first roommates because I lived in a quad, there [were] three other roommates, so I already found three friends… We’ve gone to the beach, to the gym, to the cafeteria, to the classes, and everything.”
And he found security and comfort in the sport that has been with him for almost his whole life. What ultimately continues to call Mashko to canoeing and kayaking, in addition to the chance to make it big, is how he connects to the world around him while competing or practicing.
“When you just go by yourself and you feel the nature, where you paddle still water… you can see fish, you can see the sea. You can listen to the voices of the birds. You can see the very beautiful view,” Mashko said.
“You kind of feel like what the world is.”
And sometimes in that stillness, surrounded by the lush green trees or the towering mountains or the vast sea, he says it’s akin to connecting with God.
“It’s like (the) same as getting in touch with God, with the faith,” Mashko explained. “When you get in touch with the environment and nature and other living animals, it just kind of changes your mind slightly in a better way.”
Mashko graduates from PLNU this year and hopes to continue building his athletic career in the United States while training toward his long-term goal of meeting the eligibility and selection requirements to represent the U.S. at future international competitions.
“I don’t want to give up with sport. I don’t want to give up with the community and faith that Point Loma has given to me,” Mashko said.
He said he hopes his story encourages other international students as they also find their way in the U.S.
“I just want them to know, you can make it. You can make it. It’s always hard but you can make it.”
