diff --git a/Lib/test/test_coroutines.py b/Lib/test/test_coroutines.py
index 10de85644ee..71fbe8212fb 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_coroutines.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_coroutines.py
@@ -1322,7 +1322,9 @@ class CoroutineTest(unittest.TestCase):
 class CoroAsyncIOCompatTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_asyncio_1(self):
-        import asyncio
+        # asyncio cannot be imported when Python is compiled without thread
+        # support
+        support.import_module('asyncio')
 
         class MyException(Exception):
             pass