diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index f541504e0cdc5f..1b0c1c092c8dfa 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -157,6 +157,11 @@ Documentation
 
 - Issue #29349: Fix Python 2 syntax in code for building the documentation.
 
+Build
+-----
+
+- bpo-29643: Fix ``--enable-optimization`` didn't work.
+
 Tests
 -----
 
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 0f7484231a38ce..c84a8ec9e04a1a 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -6548,7 +6548,7 @@ $as_echo_n "checking for --enable-optimizations... " >&6; }
 # Check whether --enable-optimizations was given.
 if test "${enable_optimizations+set}" = set; then :
   enableval=$enable_optimizations;
-if test "$withval" != no
+if test "$enableval" != no
 then
   Py_OPT='true'
   { $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: result: yes" >&5
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0eca886aebdc69..779fe3764c7f5a 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1237,7 +1237,7 @@ Py_OPT='false'
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(for --enable-optimizations)
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(optimizations, AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-optimizations], [Enable expensive optimizations (PGO, maybe LTO, etc).  Disabled by default.]),
 [
-if test "$withval" != no
+if test "$enableval" != no
 then
   Py_OPT='true'
   AC_MSG_RESULT(yes);