Yup, I guess it's cuz the slaves were mostly from West Africa, West Africans are usually really tall, specially Senegalese people. It's because of the nutrition thought, you can see in the youth national teams of Mexico and South Korea in football, there are several guys close to, or over, 1.80 m (~5'11") when not long ago they were an oddity. In fact, the Olympic South Korean football team had many guys over 1.90 m. :admin
Its getting more and more common for older athletes to be in great shape, dur to advances in training and knowledge of nutrition/supplementation. Vitali looks as good as he ever did. Hopkins still looks in greatb shape and hes darn near 50. Holyfield/Jones despite being completely washed up still had great physiques well into their 40s. Martinez is getting close to 40 and looks lean. 40 aint what it used to be.