diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-10-01-00-00-00.gh-issue-158525.Xw3K9a.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-10-01-00-00-00.gh-issue-158525.Xw3K9a.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..43e5bcbf1817b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2026-10-01-00-00-00.gh-issue-158525.Xw3K9a.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Avoid reacquiring the source dictionary lock when copying a sparse dictionary
+in the free-threaded build.
diff --git a/Objects/dictobject.c b/Objects/dictobject.c
index 15377ac083c2b2..d57f63512df832 100644
--- a/Objects/dictobject.c
+++ b/Objects/dictobject.c
@@ -4575,7 +4575,14 @@ copy_lock_held_untracked(PyObject *o, int as_frozendict)
     }
     if (copy == NULL)
         return NULL;
-    if (dict_merge(copy, o, 1, NULL) < 0) {
+    int res;
+    if (!PyFrozenDict_Check(o) && Py_TYPE(mp)->tp_iter == dict_iter) {
+        res = dict_dict_merge((PyDictObject *)copy, mp, 1, NULL);
+    }
+    else {
+        res = dict_merge(copy, o, 1, NULL);
+    }
+    if (res < 0) {
         Py_DECREF(copy);
         return NULL;
     }