diff --git a/kivy/core/window/_window_sdl2.pyx b/kivy/core/window/_window_sdl2.pyx
index 5ea9606a7..25832b77c 100644
--- a/kivy/core/window/_window_sdl2.pyx
+++ b/kivy/core/window/_window_sdl2.pyx
@@ -238,8 +238,11 @@ cdef class _WindowSDL2Storage:
 
     def poll(self):
         cdef SDL_Event event
+        cdef int rv
 
-        if SDL_PollEvent(&event) == 0:
+        with nogil:
+            rv = SDL_PollEvent(&event)
+        if rv == 0:
             return False
 
         action = None
diff --git a/kivy/lib/sdl2.pxi b/kivy/lib/sdl2.pxi
index fe23b1989..b322f7d38 100644
--- a/kivy/lib/sdl2.pxi
+++ b/kivy/lib/sdl2.pxi
@@ -467,7 +467,7 @@ cdef extern from "SDL.h":
     cdef Uint32 SDL_GetTicks()
     cdef void SDL_Delay(Uint32 ms) nogil
     cdef Uint8 SDL_EventState(Uint32 type, int state)
-    cdef int SDL_PollEvent(SDL_Event * event)
+    cdef int SDL_PollEvent(SDL_Event * event) nogil
     cdef void SDL_SetEventFilter(SDL_EventFilter *filter, void* userdata)
     cdef SDL_RWops * SDL_RWFromFile(char *file, char *mode)
     cdef SDL_RWops * SDL_RWFromMem(void *mem, int size)