diff --git a/Lib/test/test_free_threading/test_itertools.py b/Lib/test/test_free_threading/test_itertools.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..4eae063eb517ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/test/test_free_threading/test_itertools.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+import unittest
+from threading import Thread
+
+from test.support import threading_helper
+
+from itertools import zip_longest
+
+class PairwiseThreading(unittest.TestCase):
+    @staticmethod
+    def work(enum):
+        while True:
+            try:
+                next(enum)
+            except StopIteration:
+                break
+
+    @threading_helper.reap_threads
+    @threading_helper.requires_working_threading()
+    def test_zip_longest(self):
+        number_of_threads = 8
+        number_of_iterations = 40
+        n = 200
+        enum = zip_longest(range(n), range(2*n))
+        for _ in range(number_of_iterations):
+            worker_threads = []
+            for ii in range(number_of_threads):
+                worker_threads.append(
+                    Thread(
+                        target=self.work,
+                        args=[
+                            enum,
+                        ],
+                    )
+                )
+            for t in worker_threads:
+                t.start()
+            for t in worker_threads:
+                t.join()
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2024-10-14-08-57-14.gh-issue-123471.p0UQBR.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2024-10-14-08-57-14.gh-issue-123471.p0UQBR.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..a6c66e04d47516
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Core_and_Builtins/2024-10-14-08-57-14.gh-issue-123471.p0UQBR.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Make concurrent iterations over the same :func:`itertools.pairwise` iterator safe under free-threading.
diff --git a/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c b/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c
index 3f736f0cf19968..5d395378445f9b 100644
--- a/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c
@@ -327,37 +327,54 @@ pairwise_traverse(pairwiseobject *po, visitproc visit, void *arg)
 static PyObject *
 pairwise_next(pairwiseobject *po)
 {
+#ifdef Py_GIL_DISABLED
+    PyObject *it = Py_XNewRef(po->it);
+#else
     PyObject *it = po->it;
-    PyObject *old = po->old;
-    PyObject *new, *result;
-
+#endif
     if (it == NULL) {
         return NULL;
     }
+
+    PyObject *old = Py_XNewRef(po->old);
+    PyObject *new, *result;
+
     if (old == NULL) {
         old = (*Py_TYPE(it)->tp_iternext)(it);
-        Py_XSETREF(po->old, old);
         if (old == NULL) {
             Py_CLEAR(po->it);
+#ifdef Py_GIL_DISABLED
+            Py_DECREF(it);
+#endif
             return NULL;
         }
-        it = po->it;
-        if (it == NULL) {
+        Py_XSETREF(po->old, Py_NewRef(old));
+        if (po->it == NULL) {
+            // gh-109786: special case for re-entrant calls to pairwise next. the actual behavior is not
+            // important and this does not avoid any bugs (or does it?)
+            // the reason for having it is to make the behaviour equal to the python implementation
             Py_CLEAR(po->old);
+            Py_DECREF(old);
+#ifdef Py_GIL_DISABLED
+            Py_DECREF(it);
+#endif
             return NULL;
         }
     }
-    Py_INCREF(old);
+
     new = (*Py_TYPE(it)->tp_iternext)(it);
     if (new == NULL) {
         Py_CLEAR(po->it);
         Py_CLEAR(po->old);
+#ifdef Py_GIL_DISABLED
+        Py_DECREF(it);
+#endif
         Py_DECREF(old);
         return NULL;
     }
 
     result = po->result;
-    if (Py_REFCNT(result) == 1) {
+    if (_PyObject_IsUniquelyReferenced(result)) {
         Py_INCREF(result);
         PyObject *last_old = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(result, 0);
         PyObject *last_new = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(result, 1);
@@ -380,7 +397,10 @@ pairwise_next(pairwiseobject *po)
     }
 
     Py_XSETREF(po->old, new);
-    Py_DECREF(old);
+    Py_DECREF(old); // instead of the decref here we could borrow the reference above
+#ifdef Py_GIL_DISABLED
+    Py_DECREF(it);
+#endif
     return result;
 }