diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5b7dfe427..76a7624f6 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ if not OS == "win":
                 "-DHAVE_INCLUDE_LIBTORRENT_ASIO_SSL_STREAM_HPP=1", 
                 "-DHAVE_INCLUDE_LIBTORRENT_ASIO_IP_TCP_HPP=1", 
                 "-DHAVE_PTHREAD=1", "-DTORRENT_USE_OPENSSL=1", "-DHAVE_SSL=1", 
-                "-DNDEBUG=1"]
+                "-DNDEBUG=1", "-O2"]
     if ARCH == "x64":
         EXTRA_COMPILE_ARGS.append("-DAMD64")