I (24m) am a 6’6" tall fencer (historical fencing on rapiers). And I think that short fencers actually have an advantage over tall fencers.
Yes, tall fencers do have longer arms, but this is compensated by the fact that short fencers are usually quicker and dodge easier. Plus, if a tall fencer aims at the top of a short one, the upper body (or head/neck) is easier to remove from the attack line than the belly. The belly is simply the center of mass and therefore harder to deflect. Plus, the belly is a bigger target compared to upper body parts. And plus, if we’re talking about real blades, the belly is also soft and easy to pierce. And a tall guy is usually bigger than a short one, so he’s a bigger target - and then there’s his juicy belly right on a convenient line of shots for a short fencer.
So I think that a short fencer has more chances and auxiliary factors to stab a tall fencer in the belly than a tall fencer has to stab a short one in the neck, for example.
I’m just unsure how tall fencers are different than tall basketball players or height jumpers
Neither tall basketball players or high jumpers actively have someone actively trying to stab them in their larger mass sections. It would be better to compare with baseball where the strike zone can change depending on height. There are some good pictures of Jose Altuve standing next to Aaron judge in the MLB. Basically, tall people have a larger attack vector, and that doesn’t apply in the two sports you mentioned, where more height definitely carries significantly more advantages than disadvantages.
I see you grew up on the fancy side of town
I grew up in rural Iowa. We didn’t have a fancy side of town.
I grew up in the Norwegian equivalent of an Iowa corn field. We didn’t have town.