diff --git a/providers/amazon/src/airflow/providers/amazon/aws/hooks/athena_sql.py b/providers/amazon/src/airflow/providers/amazon/aws/hooks/athena_sql.py
index e8d8680c29c11..d66f788226aa8 100644
--- a/providers/amazon/src/airflow/providers/amazon/aws/hooks/athena_sql.py
+++ b/providers/amazon/src/airflow/providers/amazon/aws/hooks/athena_sql.py
@@ -111,7 +111,14 @@ def conn_config(self) -> AwsConnectionWrapper:
                 connection.login = athena_conn.login
                 connection.password = athena_conn.password
                 connection.schema = athena_conn.schema
-                connection.set_extra(json.dumps({**athena_conn.extra_dejson, **connection.extra_dejson}))
+                merged_extra = {**athena_conn.extra_dejson, **connection.extra_dejson}
+                try:
+                    extra_json = json.dumps(merged_extra)
+                    connection.extra = extra_json
+                except (TypeError, ValueError):
+                    raise ValueError(
+                        f"Encountered non-JSON in `extra` field for connection {self.aws_conn_id!r}."
+                    )
             except AirflowNotFoundException:
                 connection = athena_conn
                 connection.conn_type = "aws"