Why do older athletes (24–28 years old) tend to peak in famous sports rather than younger adults (18–22 years old)?

Why do older athletes (24–28 years old) tend to peak in famous sports rather than younger adults (18–22 years old)?

If we look at popular sports in the USA, such as the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball, the peak performance ages are generally around 24–27 or 28. Players between 18 and 22 years old are much less common.

People aged 18–22 are often considered to be at or their physical peak. They can drink hundreds of drinks and recover by the next morning. If they fall from a height of 100 feet, they can recover much more quickly than older adults. In contrast, people aged 24–28 experience drastically slower recovery. Muscle strength also appears to peak in the 18–22 age range, while it is often said to begin drastically declining in the mid-20s, around 24–25.

Why, then, are athletes in their mid-to-late 20s much more common at the highest level of sports than 18–22-year-olds, who are supposedly at their peak physical condition?