Five years after striking gold as a relative unknown in Rio, Anna Grimaldi is now among the long jump favourites and nearing the world record in her class.
But just reaching the top of the runway in Tokyo will be considered a huge achievement for the Kiwi Paralympian.
Grimaldi claimed New Zealand's first gold medal at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, winning the women's long jump T47 less than three years after taking up the sport.
But after leaping to the top of the podium with her final jump, Grimaldi, who was born without her right hand, endured an equally rapid descent as foot troubles threatened her burgeoning career.
"By January my foot had started to just not feel right," Grimaldi said. "I knew something was wrong. It turned out I had a stress fracture of the navicular bone, which was a pretty serious break."
Originally given a six-month timetable to return to full activity, Grimaldi's recovery was instead painfully slow and she began to question whether she would again find full fitness - and form.
It wasn't until 2019 that Grimaldi began to ease some of those doubts, with a second-place performance at the world championships in Dubai building her confidence.
The following season was even better, steadily improving on the 5.62m jump that won gold in Rio. And earlier this year, Grimaldi extended her personal best to 5.91m, within 10cm of the world record for her classification.
"I'm really looking forward to Tokyo," said the 24-year-old. "It's been five years since the last one and a lot of water has gone under the bridge. I'm really excited to get out there - I've worked so hard.
"Just being there will be a huge achievement in itself because it could have easily gone the other way."
Now back on top of her game and very much a known quantity, her standing on that runway in Tokyo will be totally different to what she encountered in 2016.
"Going into Rio I'd done some pretty awesome jumps in America leading up to it, but I was probably the least-qualified in the field," said Grimaldi, who also placed fourth in the 100m. "There were some amazing people with some amazing credentials - people who had the world records for all of our events. I sort of thought, 'Uh oh'.
"But I was so determined to do it. [On my last jump] nothing else mattered - there was no one else in that stadium. It was just me and the runway and the sandpit.
"I turned around to look at the big screen, my jump came up as 5.62 and I was like, 'Yes! That's amazing, a really good distance'. I was just stoked. I saw my name go all the way to the top. I still can't believe how it happened."
Toyota is a major partner of Paralympics New Zealand, helping Kiwis to 'Start Your Impossible'.