Morisi Kvitelashvili

Morisi Mikhailovich Kvitelashvili (მორის ყვითელაშვილი, ; Морис Михайлович Квителашвили, born 17 March 1995) is a retired Russian-Georgian figure skater who currently represents Georgia.

Kvitelashvili was born on 17 March 1995 in Moscow, Russia.

His mother, a former competitive skater, and father are both originally from Tbilisi, Georgia.

Kvitelashvili began learning to skate in 2000.

His first coach was Elena Proskurina at CSKA Moscow.

He placed fourteenth at the 2011 Russian Junior Championships and eighteenth at the 2012 edition.

He won the junior bronze medal at the 2012 NRW Trophy, his first international event.

On the junior level, he is the 2013 JGP Czech Republic bronze medalist and the 2014 Russian junior national bronze medalist.

In 2013, Kvitelashvili was selected to compete on the ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP); he placed fourth, 1.62 points behind bronze medalist Mikhail Kolyada, at his first event, which took place in September in Košice, Slovakia.

The following month, he won the bronze medal at the JGP event in Ostrava, Czech Republic, having scored 17.76 points less than silver medalist Alexander Petrov and 16.7 more than Daniel Samohin.

His senior international debut came in December, at the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trento, Italy, where he finished fifth.

Making his ISU Challenger Series (CS) debut, Kvitelashvili placed fifth at the Lombardia Trophy in September 2014.

In November, he competed at the 2014 Rostelecom Cup, replacing the injured Kolyada; he finished twelfth at the event, the first senior Grand Prix (GP) assignment of his career.

Representing Russia, Kvitelashvili is the 2015 CS Mordovian Ornament bronze medalist.

After placing eighth at the 2015 Russian Championships, he was sent to his second Winter Universiade and finished seventh at the competition, held in February 2015 in Granada, Spain.

Kvitelashvili won the bronze medal at the 2015 CS Mordovian Ornament in Saransk, Russia.

He finished twelfth at his sole GP event, the 2015 Cup of China.

In December 2015, he placed fifth in his final international event for Russia, the CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, and twelfth at the Russian Championships.

In May 2016, he submitted a request to Russian skating officials to be released to compete for Georgia.

Kvitelashvili made his first international appearance for Georgia in December 2016 at the Santa Claus Cup in Hungary.

He obtained the minimum technical scores required to compete at all ISU Championships and won the gold medal, ahead of fellow Georgian Irakli Maysuradze, by placing first in both segments.

Ranked tenth in the short program and fourth in the free skate, he finished sixth overall at the 2017 European Championships, held in January in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

In March, Kvitelashvili placed nineteenth in the short, eleventh in the free, and thirteenth overall at the 2017 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

Kvitelashvili competed at two Grand Prix events, placing fifth at the 2017 Rostelecom Cup and 6th at the 2017 Internationaux de France.

He was invited to the Russian event as a replacement for Keiji Tanaka.

He won medals at both of his Challenger Series events, taking silver at the 2017 CS Minsk-Arena Ice Star and gold at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb.

Kvitelashvili placed 24th at the 2018 Winter Olympics and progressed to 10th place at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

As of 2018, he is a student at the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism in Moscow.

Due to his placement, Georgia qualified a spot in the men's event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

In January, Kvitelashvili placed twelfth at the 2018 European Championships in Moscow.

The following month, he served as Georgia's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

He qualified for the free skate in men's singles and finished twenty-fourth overall.

Beginning the season at the 2018 Ondrej Nepela Trophy, Kvitelashvili placed fourth in the short program and third in the free skate, narrowly finishing fourth overall, less than half a point behind Keiji Tanaka.

At his second Challenger event, the Finlandia Trophy, he placed fifth in the free skate and third in the free, taking the bronze medal overall.

His first Grand Prix event of the season, 2018 Skate America, saw him place eighth overall after coming eleventh in the short program and seven in the free skate.

At the 2018 Rostelecom Cup, he placed second in both programs to win the silver medal, his first Grand Prix medal.

Kvitelashvili placed tenth at the 2019 European Championships and finished the season with a thirteenth-place showing at the 2019 World Championships.

Kvitelashvili was fourth to begin the season at the 2019 CS Ondrej Nepela Memorial before winning the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge.

At his first Grand Prix event of the season, Kvitelashvili placed fifth in both segments at the 2019 Internationaux de France, for fourth place overall.

He is the 2020 European bronze medalist, a three-time Rostelecom Cup medalist (including gold in 2021), a five-time Challenger series medalist (including gold at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb), and the 2018 Georgian national champion.