Her mind, though, could not be in a better place.
She openly admits that may not lend itself to the best performance on her return to the track at the Lovelock Classic in Timaru.
An extended break following the Tokyo Paralympics will give her the best chance of being where she wants to be at the Paris Games in 2024, though.
That long-term focus is where the Dunedin athlete has turned her attention.
"To have a break and then to slowly be getting back into it, those are obviously risks to performance," Grimaldi (24) said.
"They’re not necessarily what your body wants to jump further.
"But it’s what I needed to mentally make it through the next three years.
"I just have to keep telling myself that’s what we did it for.
"And what happens out there is just the start of where we’ll be by the end of the season."
Grimaldi has been back in full training for just over a month.
It followed a three-month break from athletics, after her successful gold medal defence in the T47 long jump, at the Tokyo Games.
It is something she has not done before.
She had a short break after Rio in 2016, while the majority of the intervening years were spent rehabilitating a broken foot.
"I think I didn’t realise how important breaks were," she said.
"After Rio I didn’t really have a break. I had the mandatory three weeks off and then came back into it straight away.
"Three weeks is not really a long enough time to process what happened, how I felt going forward.
"That was just not enough time. Not that I regret not having that much break, but I wish I did in 2016.
"So this time it was kind of a non-negotiable for me. When I came home I was just not going to be training for a bit."
Her return to training has been gradual.
She has had limited time in the long jump pit and, while entered, was unsure if she would jump on Saturday.
However, she will definitely run the 100m.
Next Thursday, she will jump in Dunedin for the first time since her second gold medal when she competes at the Yvette Williams Memorial Meet.
Grimaldi also plans to compete at the Capital Classic and Sir Graeme Douglas International, in Wellington and Auckland respectively.
The national championships will follow in March.
The IPC world championships in Japan, scheduled for the end of August, may also be on the agenda — if they go ahead.
The Lovelock Classic begins at 1pm on Saturday.
